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ETHICAL   WRITINGS 


OF 


CICERO: 

DE   OFFICIIS;    DE   SENECTUTE 

DE  AMICITIA, 
AND    SCIPIO'S    DREAM. 


TRANSLATED 

WITH 

AN    INTRODUCTION    AND    NOTES. 


By   ANDREW  P.  PEABODY. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,   AND    COMPANY. 

1887. 


CICERO    DE   OFFICIIS. 


TRANSLATED 


WITH 


AN    INTRODUCTION   AND    NOTES. 

BY 

ANDREW   P.   PEABODY. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 

1887. 


Copyright,  1883, 
Bt  Akdebw  p.  Peabodt. 


UKrvEEsmr  Press: 
JoHH  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambrtdgb. 


STACK 
ANNEX 

mi 

SYNOPSIS, 


BOOK  I. 


§1.  Introduction. 

2.  Pre-eminent  importance  of  moral  science. 

3.  Division  of  the   subject:    (1)  Tlie  Right;    (2)  The  choice 

among  right  things  ;  (3)  The  Expedient ;  (4)  The  choice 
among  expedient  things  ;  (5)  The  seeming  conflict  between 
the  Right  and  the  Expedient. 

4.  Source  of  the  Right  in  the  nature  of  man. 

5.  Division  of  the  Right :  (1)  Prudence  ;  (2)  Justice  ;  (3)  Mag- 

nanimity ;  (4)  Temperance. 

6.  Prudence,  or  Wisdom. 

7.  Justice  consists  :  (1)  In  wronging  and  injuring  no  one  ;  (2) 

In  rendering  to  every  one  his  own.  Injustice  consists  :  (1) 
In  doing  wrong;  (2)  In  omitting  to  repel  injury  from  others. 

8.  Reasons  why  wealth  is  wrongfully  sought. 

9.  Reasons  why  men  refrain   from   defending  those   who   are 

wronged. 

10.  Apparent  and  real  violations  of  good  faith. 

11.  Justice  to  be  observed  toward  enemies. 

12.  The  rights  of  wai'. 

13.  Justice  to  slaves. 

1 4.  Beneficence.     Cautions  to  be  observed  in  its  exercise. 

15.  Gratitude. 

16.  17.  Degrees  of  claims  on  beneficence. 

18.  Beneficence  needs  to  be  trained  by  practice.    Fortitude,  or 
Magnanimity, 


iv  Synopsis. 

§19.  Magnanimity  void  when  divorced  from  justice. 

20.  Consists  in  supreme  love  and  resolute  choice  of  the  right, 

and  in  a  mind  undisturbed  by  passion  and  by  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune. 

21.  Equanimity,  how  disturbed,  and  how  maintained. 

22.  23.  Magnanimity  needed  and  shown  in  civic  no  less  than  in 

military  service  and  achievements. 

24.  The  truly  great  man  will  sacrifice  even  his  own  reputation 

to  the  public  good. 

25.  Disinterestedness   and  impartial   care  for  the  whole  body 

politic  incumbent  on  those  in  public  office. 

26.  A  great  man  will  in  prosperity  keep  himself  free  from  arro- 

gance and  superciliousness. 

27.  Temperance  and  moderation.     Decorum  defined. 

28.  Decorum  consists  in  one's  living  in  accordance  with  his  own 

nature,  —  taking  in  life  the  part  for  which  he  is  fitted. 

29.  Decorum  to  be  maintained  in  jest  and  sport. 

30.  81.  Wide  diversities  of  mental  constitution  and  proclivity 

fitly  manifested  in  a  corresponding  diversity  of  manners 
and  of  social  intercourse. 

82.  The  part  which  we  take  upon  ourselves  in  the  choice  of  a 

profession  or  mode  of  life. 

83.  The  part  imposed  upon  us  by  circumstances  beyond  our 

control. 

84.  Decorum  as  regards  diffierent  ages  and  conditions  in  life. 

85.  Decorum  requires  modesty  and  decency  in  dress,  conduct, 

and  speech.  The  coarseness  and  indecency  of  the  Cynics 
censured. 
36.  Decomm  requires  in  dress  and  personal  habits  something 
midway  between  the  extremes  of  slovenliness  and  foppish- 
ness, of  rusticity  and  over-refinement,  of  laggard  laziness 
and  inordinate  haste,  —  also  an  equipoise  of  the  appetites 
and  passions. 

87.  Decorum  in  the  style  of  conversation. 

88.  Decorum  excludes  from  the  speech  anger,  boastfulness,  and 

mendacity. 

89.  What  sort  of  a  house  a  man  of  distinguished  rank  should 

live  in. 


Synopsis.  v 

§40.  The  fitnesses  of  time  and  place. 

41.  How  to  become  aware  of  our  violations  of  decorum. 

42.  What  trades  and  professions  are  to  be  considered  respectable, 

and  what  are  to  be  regarded  as  vulgar. 

43.  Comparison  of  duties.     Duties  of  justice  and  benevolence  to 

be  preferred  to  those  of  prudence  or  wisdom. 

44.  To  those  under  the  head  of  fortitude  or  magnanimity. 

45.  Not  to  those  of  deconim.     Grades  of  duties. 


BOOK  11. 

1.  Introduction. 

2.  Cicero's  reasons  for  writing  on  philosophical  subjects.     His 

own  philosophy  (of  the  New  Academy),  and  its  bearing 
on  the  subjects  under  discussion,  defined. 

3.  The  Expedient  inseparable  from  the  Right.     Of  all  beings 

and  objects  man  is  most  serviceable  and  most  harmful 
to  man.  Inanimate  objects  made  of  service  by  human 
industry. 

4.  Beasts  tamed  and  utilized,  or,  when  noxious,  slain  by  man 

for  the  benefit  of  man. 

5.  Man's  harmfulness  to  man  shown  by  comparison  of  the  evil 

and  destruction  brought  about  by  his  agency  with  the  mis- 
chief wrought  by  all  other  agencies.  It  is  the  province 
of  Virtue  and  of  the  several  virtues,  to  conciliate  the  kind 
feelings  and  good  offices  of  men. 

6.  The  part  which  Fortune  has  in  human  affairs  small  as  com- 

pared with  the  good  or  evil  done  by  men  to  men.  The 
various  influences  by  which  men  are  made  subservient 
to  men. 

7.  The  influence  of  fear  compared  with  that  of  good  will. 

8.  The  eff'ect  of  oppression  and  tyranny  upon  the  allies  of  the 

Roman  people  and  upon  citizens  not  in  favor  with  the 
ruling  powers. 

9.  10.  The  three  prerequisites  to  fame,  —  the  love  of  the  people, 

their  confidence,  and  qualities  that  command  their  ad- 
miration. 


VI 


Synopsis. 


§11.  These  prerequisites  of  fame  are  all  created  and  conferred  by 
justice,  and  cannot  exist  independently  of  justice. 

12.  Kings  were  first  chosen,  and  laws  established,  to  secure  the 

equal  administration  of  justice. 

13.  Justice  the  prime  factor  of  fame.    But  a  young  man  is  aided 

in  acquiring  reputation  by  attaching  himself  to  the  society 
and  seeking  the  counsel  of  men  already  worthily  eminent. 

14.  Favor  won  by  ease  and  affability  in  conversation,  —  by  elo- 

quence at  the  bar,  especially  in  the  defence  of  accused 
persons.  Accusation  to  be  resorted  to  rarely,  and  only  for 
special  reasons,  personal,  official,  or  patriotic. 

15.  Beneficence  by  personal  service  or  by  money.     The  former 

more  conducive  to  reputation. 

16.  17.  Pecuniary  prodigality  and  liberality,  —  the  former  to  be 

deprecated,  yet  sometimes  necessary,  as  in  the  aedileship 
for  those  who  aspire  to  higher  office. 

18.  Liberality  and  hospitality  as  conducive  to  reputation. 

19.  Personal  service,  especially  eloquent  defence  in  the  courts 

of  justice,  the  means  of  gaining  attached  and  zealous 
friends. 

20.  Benefits  better  invested  with  poor  but  worthy  men  who  will 

feel  the  obligation,  than  with  rich  men  who  will  spurn  it. 

21.  Benefits  afiTecting  classes  of  men  or  the  whole  community. 

The  foi-mer  to  be  so  conferred  as,  if  possible,  to  help,  and 
never  to  injure  the  entire  body  politic. 

22.  Agrarian  laws  and  measures  looking  to  the  cancelling  or 

arbitrary  reduction  of  debts  are  not  conducive  to  true  or 
enduring  fame. 

23.  The  conduct  of  Aratus,  of  Sicyon,  with  reference  to  estates 

confiscated  by  tyrants,  and  belonging  to  exiles  restored  by 
him  to  their  country. 

24.  The  efforts  for  the  cancelling  of  debts  suppressed  under 

Cicero's  consulship.     The  care  of  health  and  of  prop- 
erty. 

25.  The  comparison  of  things  expedient  or  useful 


SyTwpsis.  vii 


BOOK  III. 

§  1.  Introduction. 

2,  There  can  be  no  real  conflict  between  expediency  and  the 

Right. 

3,  4.  This  appears  from  the  nature  of  the  Right. 

4,  5.  From  the  nature  of  the  Expedient. 

6.  The  benefit  of  each  and  the  benefit  of  all  are  identical. 

7.  Justice  never  to  be  sacrificed  to  expediency.     The  seeming 

repugnancy  of  the  Right  and  the  Expedient  can  in  no 
case  and  by  no  possibility  be  real. 

8.  Even  to  think  otherwise  is  morally  evil, 

9.  The  story  of  Gyges,  showing  that  concealment  cannot  afiiect 

the  character  of  moral  acts. 
10,  11.  Cases  where  expediency  may  create  right,  by  altering  the 
primary  conditions  on  which  the  Right  depends,  and  other 
cases  where  the  clearest  show  of  expediency  is  inadequate 
to  create  right. 

12.  The  case  of  the  Alexandrian  corn-merchant  who  arrives  with 

his  cargo  at  Rhodes  in  a  famine,  and  knows  that  other 
corn-laden  ships  are  on  their  way  to  Rhodes.  Shall  he 
tell  this,  or  keep  sOence  ?    Arguments  on  both  sides. 

13.  Must  a  man  who  is  going  to  sell  his  house  divulge  all  its 

defects  and  discomforts  ? 

14.  A  case  of  downright  fraud  in  the  sale  of  an  estate. 

15.  16.  Legal  provisions  against  criminal  fraud,  and  how  evaded. 

17.  Laws  seek  to  prevent  fraud  by  the  power  of  the  state  ;  phi- 

losophers, by  reason  and  intelligence; 

1 8.  A  case  of  venal  complicity  in  fraud  on  the  part  of  two  of  the 

chief  citizens  of  Rome. 

19.  The  idea  of  a  good  man  in  one's  own  inner  c(»isciousness  in- 

cludes perfect  and  impartial  justice.. 

20.  Men  are  tempted  to  what  seem  very  small  wrongs  by  the 

prospect  of  immensely  greater  gains.  Cases  of  Caius 
Marius  and  Marius  Gratidianus* 

21.  Case  of  Julius  Caesar. 


viii  Synopsis. 

§22.  Cases  of  the  observance  and  of  the  violation  of  right  by  the 
Roman  peoi)le. 

23.  Cases  of  casuistrj^  discussed  among  the  Stoics. 

24,  25.  Cases  in  which  under  altered  circumstances  a  promise  is 

not  to  be  kept. 

26.  Magnanimity  never  to  be  sacrificed  for  expediency.     Com- 

parison of  Ulysses,  according  to  tradition  feigning  insanity 
to  release  himself  from  his  oath  to  avenge  the  marital 
wrongs  of  Menelaus,  and  Regulus  returning  to  certain 
death  in  order  to  keep  his  oath-pledged  faith  inviolate. 

27.  The  story  of  Regulus,  as  then  current  in  Rome. 

28.  The  arguments  in  favor  of  his  staying  at  home,  and  violating 

his  oath,  stated. 

29.  Refuted. 

30.  Cases  similar  to  his  cited. 

81.  The  sacredness  of  an  oath  in  the  earlier  times. 

32.  The  perjury  of  other  Roman  captives  sent  by  Hannibal  to 

demand  an  exchange  of  prisoners  and  bound  by  an  oath 

to  return,  if  unsuccessful. 
83.  Moderation,  temperance,  and  decorum  never  to  be  sacrificed 

to  expediency.     The  nullity  of  these  virtues  under  the 

system  of  Epicurus.    Conclusion. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Thehe  are  two  systems  of  ethical  philosophy, 
which  in  every  age  divide  speculative  moralists, 
and  are  recognized  with  a  more  or  less  distinct 
consciousness  in  the  conduct  of  life  by  all  in  whom 
the  moral  sense  has  attained  mature  development. 
They  are,  indeed,  in  different  ages  and  by  different 
writers  stated  more  or  less  explicitly,  in  widely 
varying  terminology,  and  with  modifications  from 
culture,  religion,  national  character,  and  individual 
proclivities.  They  are,  also,  sometimes  blended 
by  an  eclecticism  which  cannot  wholly  transcend 
the  lovrer,  yet  feels  the  intense  attraction  of  the 
higher  sphere.  One  system  is  that  which  makes 
virtue  a  means ;  the  other,  that  which  makes  it 
an  end.  According  to  the  one,  we  are  to  practise 
virtue  for  the  good  that  will  come  of  it  to  our-  | 
selves  or  our  fellow-beings ;  according  to  the  other,  j 
we  are  to  practise  virtue  for  its  own  sake,  for  its 
intrinsic  fitness  and  excellence,  without  reference  J 


X  Introduction. 

to  ulterior  consequences,  save  when,  and  so  far 
as,  those  consequences  are  essential  factors  in  de- 
termining the  intrinsic  quality  of  the  action. 

Of  course,  this  general  division  admits  of  ob- 
vious subdivisions.  The  former  system  includes 
the  selfish  and  the  utilitarian  theory  of  morals,  — 
the  selfish  making  the  pursuit  of  our  own  happi- 
ness our  duty,  and  adaptation  to  that  end  the  sole 
standard  of  right ;  the  utilitarian  identifying  vir- 
tue with  benevolence,  accounting  the  greatest  good 
of  the  greatest  number  the  supreme  aim,  and  be- 
neficent utility  the  ultimate  standard  of  duty.  The 
alternative  system,  according  to  which  virtue  is 
to  be  practised,  not  for  what  it  does,  but  for  what 
it  is,  includes,  also,  various  definitions  of  virtue, 
according  as  its  standard  is  deemed  to  be  intrinsic 
fitness,  accordance  with  the  aesthetic  nature,  the 
verdict  of  the  moral  sense,  or  conformity  to  the 
will  of  God.  These  latter  theories,  widely  as  they 
differ,  agree  in  representing  the  right  as  having 
a  validity  independent  of  circumstances  and  of 
human  judgment,  as  unaffected  by  the  time-and- 
place  element,  as  possessed  of  characteristics 
connate,  indelible,  eternal ;  while  the  selfish  and 
utilitarian  schools  alike  represent  it  as  mutable, 
dependent  on  circumstances,  varying  with  time 
and  place,  and  possessed  of  no  attributes  dis- 
tinctively its  own. 


Introduction.  xi 

In  Cicero's  time  the  left  and  the  right  wing  in  ethi- 
cal philosophy  were  represented  by  the  Epicureans 
and  the  Stoics  respectively,  while  the  Peripatetics 
held  a  middle  ground.  The  Epicureans  regarded 
happiness — or,  according  to  their  founder,  painless- 
ness —  as  the  sole  aim  and  end  of  moral  conduct, 
and  thus  resolved  all  virtue  into  prudence,  or  judi- 
cious self-love,  —  a  doctrine  which  with  such  a 
disciple  as  Pliny  the  Younger  identified  virtue 
with  the  highest  self-culture  as  alone  conducive  to 
the  happiness  of  the  entire  selfhood,  intellectual 
and  spiritual  as  well  as  bodily;  but  with  Horace 
and  his  like,  and  with  Eousseau,  who  professed 
adherence  to  that  school,  afforded  license  and  am- 
nesty to  the  most  debasing  sensuality. 

The  Stoics  regarded  virtue  as  the  sole  aim  and 
end  of  life,  and  virtue  is,  in  their  philosophy,  the 
conformity  of  the  will  and  conduct  to  universal 
nature,  —  intrinsic  fitness  thus  being  the  law  and 
the  criterion  of  the  right.  Complete  conformity, 
or  perfect  virtue,  is,  according  to  this  school,  attain- 
able only  by  the  truly  wise ;  and  its  earlier  disci- 
ples, while  by  no  means  certain  that  this  ideal 
perfectness  had  ever  been  realized  in  human  form 
even  by  Zeno,  the  great  master,  yet  admitted  no 
moral  distinction  between  those  who  fell  but  little 
short  of  perfection  and  those  who  had  made  no 
progress  toward  it.      The  later  Stoics,  however, 


xu 


IntroducHon. 


recognized  degrees  of  goodness,  and  were  diligent 
expositors  and  teachers  of  the  duties  within  the 
scope  of  those  not  truly  wise,  by  the  practice  of 
which  there  might  be  an  ever  nearer  approach  to 
perfection.  This  philosophy  was,  from  Cicero's 
time  till  Christianity  gained  ascendency,  the  only 
antiseptic  that  preserved  Eoman  society  from  utter 
and  remediless  corruption. 

The  Peripatetic  philosophy  makes  virtue  to  con- 
sist in  moderation,  or  the  avoidance  of  extremes, 
and  places  each  of  the  individual  virtues  midway 
between  opposite  vices,  as  temperance  between 
excess  and  asceticism ;  generosity  between  prodi- 
gality and  avarice ;  meekness  between  irascibility 
and  pusillanimity.  It  admits  the  reality  of  the 
intrinsically  right  as  distinguished  from  the  merely 
expedient  or  useful ;  but  it  maintains  that  happi- 
ness is  the  supreme  object  and  end  of  life,  and  that 
for  this  end,  virtue,  though  essential,  is  not  sufficient 
without  external  goods,  —  so  that  the  wisely  vir- 
tuous man,  while  he  will  never  violate  the  right, 
will  pursue  by  all  legitimate  means  such  outward 
advantages  as  may  be  within  his  reach. 

The  New  Academy,  whose  philosophy  was  a 
blending  of  Platonism  and  Pyrrhonism,  while  it 
denied  the  attain ableness  of  objective  truth,  main- 
tained that  on  all  subjects  of  speculative  philoso- 
phy probability  is  attainable,  and  that  wherever 


Introduction.  xiii 

there  is  scope  for  action,  the  moral  agent  is  bound 
to  act  in  accordance  with  probability,  —  of  two 
courses  to  pursue  that  for  which  the  more  and  the 
better  reasons  can  be  given.  The  disciples  of 
this  school  accepted  provisionally  the  Peripatetic 
ethics. 

Cicero  professed  to  belong  to  the  New  Academy, 
and  its  ethical  position  was  in  close  accordance 
with  his  nature.     Opinion  rather  than  belief  was 
his  mental  habit,  —  strong  opinion,  indeed,  yet  less 
than  certainty.     His  instincts  as  an  advocate  — 
often  induced  by  professional  exigencies,  not  only 
to  cast  doubt  on  what  he  had  previously  affirmed, 
but  with   the   ardor   of  one  who  threw  himself 
with  his  whole  soul  into  the  case  in  hand  to  feel 
such  doubt  before  he  gave  it  utterance  —  made  the 
scepticism  of  this  school  congenial  to  him.     At 
the  same  time,  his  love  of  elegant  ease  and  luxury 
and  his  lack  of  moral  enterprise  —  though  not  of 
courage  when  emergencies  were  forced  upon  him  —  i 
were  in  closer  affinity  with  the  practical  ethics  of  | 
the  Peripatetics  than  with  the  more  rigid  system  I 
of  the  Stoics ;  while  his  pure  moral  taste  and  his 
genuine  reverence  for  the  right  brought  him  into 
sympathy  with  the  Stoic  school.     Under  no  cul-  , 
ture  short  of  that  Christian  regeneration  which  is 
less  a  culture  than  a  power  could  he  have  become  i 
heroically  virtuous ;  under  no  conceivable  influence 


xiv  Introduction. 

could  he,  such  as  he  was  in  his  early  manhood, 
have  hecome  grossly  vicious.  He  believed  in  vir- 
tue, admired  it,  loved  it.  His  aesthetic  nature 
was  pre-eminently  true  and  pure.  His  private 
character  indicates  high-toned  principle.  In  an 
age  when  all  things  were  venal,  no  charge  of  cor- 
ruption was  ever  urged  against  him,  even  by  an 
enemy.  He  neither  bought  office,  nor  sold  its 
functions.  Associating  familiarly  with  well-known 
convivialists,  who  regarded  a  wine-debauch  as 
always  a  welcome  episode  in  the  pursuits  whether 
of  war  or  of  peace,  we  have  no  vestige  of  a  proof 
that  he  ever  transgressed  the  bounds  of  temper- 
ance, and  there  is  not  a  word  in  his  writings  that 
indicates  any  sympathy  with  excesses  of  the  table. 
Living  at  a  time  when  licentiousness  in  its  foulest 
forms  was  professed  without  shame  and  practised 
without  rebuke,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  he 
led  a  chaste  life  from  his  youth  ;  and  though  as  an 
advocate  he  was  sometimes  obliged  to  refer  to  sub- 
jects and  transactions  offensive  to  purity,  and  in 
his  letters  there  are  passages  which  might  seem 
out  of  place  in  the  correspondence  of  a  Christian 
scholar  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  in  all  his  extant  writings  there  is 
a  single  sentence  inconsistent  with  what  a  purist 
of  his  own  age  would  have  deemed  a  blameless 
moral  character. 


Introduction.  xv 

He  has  been,  indeed,  charged  by  some  of  his 
biographers  with  motives  of  the  lowest  order  in 
the  divorce  of  the  mother  of  his  children  after  a 
union  of  thirty  years,  and  his  marriage  with  a 
young  heiress,  his  own  ward.  But  by  the  best 
standard  that  he  knew,  though  not  by  the  Chris- 
tian standard  so  profligately  ignored  and  outraged 
in  our  own  section  of  Christendom,  he  was  more 
than  justified.  His  wife  was  no  little  of  a  virago, 
had  wasted  a  great  deal  of  money  for  him  in 
his  absence,  and  had  willed  property  under  her 
control  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  him  just  dis- 
pleasure; and  it  appears  from  his  letters  that 
he  exercised  the  then  unquestioned  right  of  di- 
vorce solely  on  these  grounds,  with  no  specific 
marriage  in  view,  and  that  the  alliance  which  he 
actually  made  was  preceded  by  overtures  both  to 
and  from  other  candidates  for  that  honor.  More- 
over, the  charge  of  mercenary  views  in  this  mar- 
riage is  negatived  by  its  speedy  dissolution  on  his 
part,  with  the  sacrifice  of  the  entire  and  large 
fortune  which  it  brought  to  him,  on  the  sole 
ground  that  his  bride  had  manifested  unseemly 
satisfaction  in  the  death  of  his  daughter  Tullia, 
whom  she  regarded  as  her  rival  in  her  husband's 
affection. 

Yet  there  were  heights  of  virtue  beyond  Cicero's 
scope.     He  was  wholly  destitute  of  the  martjn:- 


xvi  Introductio'a. 

spirit.  He  was  much  of  a  Sybarite  in  his  habits. 
His  many  villas,  furnished  with  equal  taste  and 
splendor,  gave  him  the  sumptuous  surroundings 
and  the  aesthetic  leisure  without  which  he  could 
not  regard  even  virtue  as  sufficient  for  his  happi- 
ness, and  times  of  enforced  absence  from  wonted 
pursuits  and  enjoyments  were  filled  with  unmanly 
complaint  and  self-commiseration.  He  loved  ap- 
plause, suffered  keenly  from  unpopularity,  and  vacil- 
lated in  his  political  allegiance,  sometimes  with  the 
breeze  of  public  opinion,  sometimes  with  his  faith 
in  the  fortunes  of  an  eminent  leader.  He  often 
worshipped  with  manifest  sincerity  the  ascending 
star,  and  had  little  sympathy  with  fallen  greatness. 
He  was  thoroughly  patriotic,  would  have  sacrificed 
for  his  country  anything  and  everything  except  his 
own  fame,  and  coveted  nothing  so  much  as  oppor- 
tunities like  that  afforded  by  the  Catilinian  conspi- 
racy for  winning  celebrity  by  signal  service  to  the 
republic.  He  had,  too,  large  and  profound  wisdom 
as  a  statesman ;  but  his  best  judgment  generally 
came  too  late  for  action,  so  that  had  he  derived 
a  surname  from  classic  fable,  it  would  have  been 
Epimetheus,  not  Prometheus.  As  an  advocate  he 
was  supple  and  many-sided,  yet  he  always  im- 
presses his  reader  with  his  sincerity,  and  probably 
a  prime  element  of  his  pre-eminent  success  in  the 
courts  was  the  capacity  of  making  a  cause  his  own. 


Introduction.  xvii 

and  throwing  into  it  for  the  time  genuine  feeling 
and  not  its  mere  eloquent  semblance. 

His  lot  was  cast  in  an  age  when  only  an  iron  i 
wiU  could  have  maintained,  along  with  the  con-j 
scions  integrity  which,  as  I  think,  characterized 
Cicero's  whole  life,  the  perfect  self-consistency 
which  no  stress  could  bend  or  warp.  When  we 
compare  him  with  his  most  illustrious  contempo- 
raries, it  is  impossible  not  to  assign  to  him  a  pre- 
eminent place  both  as  to  private  virtues  and  as 
to  public  services.  It  is  only  when  we  try  him 
by  his  own  standard  that  w^e  have  a  vivid  sense 
of  his  deficiencies  and  shortcomings. 

Cicero's  only  son,  with  the  heritage  of  his  name, 
Marcus  Tullius,  seems  to  have  inherited  few  of  his 
father's  distinguishing  characteristics,,  and  not  im- 
probably may  have  borne,  in  some  respects,  a  close 
moral  kindred  to  his  high-spirited  mother.  He 
was  impetuous,  irascible,  headstrong,  brave  as  a 
soldier,  and  though  indolent  except  when  roused 
to  action,  not  without  ability  and  learning.  At 
the  age  of  sixteen  he  served  with  great  credit  in 
Pompey's  army.  After  the  defeat  of  Pharsalia  he 
was  sent  to  Athens  to  complete  his  education.  He 
fell  there  into  habits  of  gross  dissipation,  being 
led  astray  by  one  of  his  teachers.  He,  however, 
yielded  to  his  father's  earnest  remonstrances,  ex- 
pressed great  grief  and  shame  for  his  misconduct, 
b 


XVIU 


Introduction. 


and  entered  upon  a  regular  and  studious  course 
of  life,  winning  high  credit  with  Cratippus  his 
teacher,  and  receiving  warm  commendation  from 
liis  father's  friends  resident  or  sojourning  in 
Athens.  He  suhsequently  fought  with  distinction 
under  Marcus  Brutus,  and  after  the  battle  of  Phi- 
lippi  joined  Sextus  Pompeius  in  Sicily.  Returning 
to  Rome  when  peace  was  concluded  with  the 
Triumvirate,  he  was  an  object  of  special  regard 
with  Augustus,  and  after  holding  several  offices  of 
lower  grade,  became  his  colleague  in  the  consul- 
ship. He  afterward  went  as  proconsul  to  Asia 
Minor,  where  his  name  drops  from  history,  which 
but  for  his  father  might  never  have  found  place 
for  it. 

When  it  appeared  that  Brutus  and  Cassius  had 
effected  nothing  for  the  republic,  and  Antony  was 
becoming  all-powerful  in  the  state,  in  the  spring  of 
44  B.  c,  Cicero,  deeming  his  life  insecure,  left  Rome, 
and  spent  the  summer  successively  at  several  of 
his  villas  in  "Western  Italy.  He  beguiled  his  dis- 
appointment and  sorrow  at  the  issue  of  public 
affairs  by  philosophy  and  ethics,  and  this  summer 
seems  to  have  been,  at  least  for  posterity,  the  most 
fruitful  season  of  his  life,  being  the  epoch  of  the 
completion  of  his  Tusculan  Disputations  and  his 
De  Natura  Deorum,  and  of  the  composition  of 
several  of  his  smaller  treatises.     In  June  of  that 


Introduction.  xix 

year  lie  says,  in  a  letter  to  Atticus,  that  lie  is 
writing  for  his  son's  benefit  an  elaborate  treatise 
on  Morals.  "  On  what  subject,"  he  asks,  "  can  a 
father  better  write  to  a  son  ? "  In  the  latter  part 
of  the  summer  he  started  on  a  journey  to  Athens 
to  visit  his  son,  but  was  recalled  by  the  intelli- 
gence of  a  probable  understanding  on  amicable 
terms  between  Antony  and  the  Senate.  Deceived 
in  this  hope,  he  repaired  to  Eome,  and  pronounced 
his  first  Philippic  against  Antony  in  the  beginning 
of  September.  In  November  he  writes  again  about 
his  ethical  work,  tells  Atticus  that  he  has  com- 
pleted two  books  and  is  busy  on  the  third,  and 
announces  and  explains  the  title.  The  work  was 
completed  before  the  end  of  the  year. 

Cicero's  time  was  a  period  of  eclecticism  in 
philosophy,  especially  so  among  the  cultivated 
Eomans,  with  whom  philosophy  was  not  indi- 
genous, but  a  comparatively  recent  importation. 
Cicero  himself  was  pre-eminently  a  lover  of  philo- 
sophical thought,  study,  and  discussion,  and  prob- 
ably was  more  intimately  conversant  with  the 
history  of  opinions  and  the  contents  of  books  in 
that  department  than  any  man  of  his  time;  yet 
he  seems  to  have  lacked  profound  convictions  on 
the  subjects  at  issue  among  the  several  schools. 
Thus  in  the  De  Ojfficiis,  while  he  repeatedly  pro- 
fesses his  adherence  to   the  New  Academy  and 


XXL  Introduction. 

the  Peripatetic  doctrine  of  morals,  he  bases  his 
discussion  on  the  Stoic  theory,  and  intimates  very 
clearly  that  he  thought  his  son  safer  under  the 
rigid  discipline  of  the  Stoic  school  than  under  the 
more  lax  though  wise  tuition  of  his  Peripatetic 
preceptor.  It  is  as  if  a  Mohammedan,  while  recog- 
nizing the  divine  mission  of  the  Arab  prophet, 
were  to  write  for  his  son  a  treatise  on  the  ethics 
of  the  New  Testament  as  better  adapted  than  the 
moral  system  of  the  Koran  for  the  training  and 
confirming  of  a  young  man  in  the  practice  of 
virtue. 

This  treatise,  then,  may  be  regarded  as  an  expo- 
sition of  the  ethical  system  of  the  Stoics  of  Cicero's 
time,  yet  with  a  special  limitation,  purpose,  and 
adaptation.  It  is  not  designed  for  the  ideally 
perfect  philosopher,  nor  for  a  candidate  for  that 
exalted  position,  but  for  one  on  the  lower  plane  of 
common  life.  It  therefore  defines  not  the  moral 
consciousness  of  the  truly  wise  man,  but  the  spe- 
cific duties  by  the  practice  of  which  one  may  gi-ow 
into  the  semblance  of  true  wisdom.  Nor  does  it 
purport  to  be  a  compendium  even  of  these  duties. 
It  is  simply  a  directory  for  a  young  Eoman  of  high 
rank  and  promise,  who  is  going  to  enter  upon  pub- 
lic life,  and  to  be  a  candidate  for  office  and  honor 
in  the  state.  It  prescribes  the  self-training,  the 
social  relations,  and  the  habits  of  living,  by  which 


Introduction.  xxi 

such  a  youth  may  both  deserve  and  attain  dis- 
tinction and  eminence,  and  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence of  his  fellow-citizens.  Of  course,  many  of 
the  details  in  this  treatise  were  of  merely  local  and 
transient  import  and  value;  but  its  underlying 
principles  are  in  such  close  harmony  with  the 
absolute  and  eternal  right  that  they  can  never 
become  obsolete.  At  the  same  time,  the  division 
and  arrangement  of  the  treatise  give  it,  so  far  as  I 
know,  the  precedence  over  all  other  ethical  treatises 
ancient  or  modern.  The  division  is  exhaustive. 
The  arrangement  is  such  as  to  leave  an  open  space 
for  the  insertion  and  full  treatment  of  any  topic 
within  the  scope  of  ethical  philosophy. 

The  First  Book  treats  of  the  Eight.  The  right 
consists  in  accordance  with  nature,  with  the  nature 
of  things,  with  the  nature  of  man.  Hence  is  de- 
rived its  imperative  obligation  upon  the  human 
conscience.  Its  duties  are  evolved  from  man's 
own  consciousness.  Man  by  his  very  nature  de- 
sires knowledge,  and  craves  materials  for  the  active 
exercise  of  his  cognitive  powers.  He  is  by  his 
birth,  by  his  instinctive  cravings,  by  the  necessity 
of  his  daily  life,  a  gregarious  being,  a  member  of 
a  family,  of  society,  of  the  state,  and  as  such  cannot 
but  recognize  justice,  including  benevolence,  as  his 
imperative  duty.  He  postulates  distinction,  emi- 
nence, a  position  from  which  he  can  look  down  on 


xxii  Introduction. 

earthly  fortunes  as  beneath  him,  and  can  sacrifice 
all  exterior  good  for  the  service  of  mankind  and 
the  attainment  of  merited  fame.  He  has  also  an 
innate  sense  of  order,  proportion,  harmony,  which 
can  satisfy  itself  only  by  practical  reference  to  the 
due  time,  place,  manner,  and  measure  of  whatever 
is  done  or  said.  Hence  the  four  virtues  of  Pru- 
dence or  Wisdom,  Justice,  Fortitude  or  Magnanim- 
ity, and  Order,  Temperance,  or  Moderation,  These 
-virtues  in  their  broadest  significance  include  all 
human  obligations,^  and  form  a  series  of  divisions, 
under  one  or  another  >  of  which  may  be  classed 
every  specific  duty.  Under  each  of  these  heads 
Cicero  shows  what  was  demanded  by  the  highest 
sentiment  of  his  time  from  a  youth  of  spotless  fame 
and  of  honorable  ambition. 

The  Second  Book  has  Expediency,  or  Utility,  for 
its  subject.  Outside  of  the  province  of  duty  or 
of  things  required  there  is  large  room  for  choice 
among  things  permitted,  —  consistent  with  the 
Eight,  yet  forming  no  part  of  it.  The  question 
that  underlies  this  Book  is,  By  what  honorable 
methods,  other  than  the  discharge  of  express  duty, 
can  a  young  man  secure  for  himself  the  favor, 
gratitude,  assistance,  and  —  in  case  of  need — the 
suffrages  of  his  fellow-citizens  ?  This  Book  has  its 
proper  place  in  a  treatise  on  morals,  because  it  is 

*  See  p.  10,  note. 


Introduction.  xxiii 

the  author's  aim  throughout  to  discriminate  he- 
tween  the  immoral  and  the  legitimate  modes  of 
obtaining  reputation  and  popularity. 

The  Third  Book  deals  with  the  alleged  or  seem- 
ing discrepancy  between  the  Expedient  and  the 
Eight.  Cicero  denies  the  possibility  of  such  mu- 
tual repugnance,  and  maintains  that  whatever  is 
expedient  must  of  necessity  be  right,  and  that  what 
is  right  cannot  be  otherwise  than  expedient. 

In  this  translation  I  have  attempted  to  gi^e, 
not  a  word-for-word  version  of  the  Latin  text,  but 
a  literal  transcript  in  English  of  what  I  suppose 
that  Cicero  meant  to  write  in  his  own  tongue.  I 
have  not  used  his  moods  and  tenses  in  the  in- 
stances in  which  our  English  idiOm  would  employ 
a  different  form  of  the  verb.  I  have  not  infre- 
quently omitted  the  connective  and  illative  words 
that  bind  sentence  to  sentence,  in  cases  in  which 
we  should  use  no  such  words.^    In  the  few  obscure 

1  I  am  strongly  impressed  with  the  belief  that  such  words 
were  largely  employed  as  catch-words  for  the  eye,  and  that  they 
served  the  purpose  now  effected  by  punctuation  and  by  the 
capital  letters  at  the  beginning  of  sentences.  This  opinion  can- 
not of  course  be  verified  ;  yet  could  we  have  phonographic  re- 
ports of  Cicero's  orations,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  we  should 
miss  some  of  the  conjunctions  that  are  found  in  their  written 
form.  As  to  Greek  particles  I  have  no  right  to  an  opinion ; 
but  I  will  hazard  the  conjecture  that  they  would  have  been 
scattered  with  a  more  sparing  hand,  had  the  art  of  punctuation 
been  coeval  with  "  the  letters  Cadmus  gave." 


xxiv  Introduction. 

passages  I  have  sought  the  aid  of  the  best  com- 
mentators, but  have  generally  found  them  hazy  or 
ambiguous  in  their  interpretation  where  there  was 
any  room  for  doubt.  I  may  have  made  mistakes 
in  translating ;  but  if  so,  it  has  not  been  for  lack 
of  close  and  careful  study,  with  the  help  of  the 
best  editions  which  I  could  procure  for  myself  or 
find  in  the  Harvard  College  Library. 

I  have  used  Beier's  text  as  the  basis  for  my 
translation,  and  have  preferred  not  to  deviate  from 
it  even  where  a  different  reading  seemed  to  me 
intrinsically  probable ;  for  in  every  such  instance 
Beier  gives  satisfactory  reasons  for  his  preferred 
reading,  and  destitute  as  I  am  of  the  needed  appa- 
ratus for  textual  criticism,  I  cannot  but  regard  his 
judgment  in  such  a  case  as  much  better  than 
my  own. 


CICERO    DE    OFFICIIS. 


BOOK    L 


1.  Although  you,  my  son  Marcus,  having  lis- 
tened for  a  year  to  Cratippus,  and  that  at  Athens, 
ought  to  be  well  versed  in  the  maxims  and  princi- 
ples of  philosophy,  on  account  of  the  paramount 
authority  both  of  the  teacher  and  of  the  city,  —  the 
former  being  able  to  enrich  you  with  knowledge ; 
the  latter,  with  examples,  —  yet,  as  for  my  own 
benefit  I  have  always  connected  Latin  with  Greek, 
and  have  done  so,  not  only  in  philosophy,  but  also 
in  my  self-training  as  a  public  speaker,  I  think 
that  you,  too,  ought  to  do  the  same,  in  order  that 
you  may  be  equally  capable  of  either  style  of  dis- 
course.^ To  this  end  I  have,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
been  of  no  small  service  to  my  fellow-citizens,  so 
that  not  only  those  ignorant  of  Greek  literature, 
but  highly  educated  men  also,  think  that  they  have 

1  Either  philosophical  discussion  or  oratory. 
1 


2  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

gained  somewhat  from  me,  both  as  to  public  speak- 
ing and  as  to  philosophical  discussion.  Therefore, 
while  you  will  be  the  pupil  of  the  first  philosopher 
of  our  time,  and  will  continue  so  as  long  as  you 
please,  —  and  that  ought  to  be  as  long  as  you  can 
profit  by  his  instruction,  —  yet  by  reading  my 
writings,  which  dissent  very  little  from  the  Peri- 
patetics (for  both  they  and  I  regard  ourselves  as 
disciples  both  of  Socrates  and  of  Plato),  though  on 
the  subjects  of  discussion  I  would  have  you  freely 
exercise  your  own  judgment,  you  will  certainly 
acquire  a  fuller  command  of  the  Latin  tongue. 
Nor  in  speaking  thus  ought  I  to  be  regarded  as 
presumptuous.  For  while  in  the  science  of  phi- 
losophy I  may  have  many  superiors,  if  I  claim  for 
myself  what  belongs  properly  to  the  orator,  aptness, 
perspicuity,  and  elegance  of  diction,  since  I  have 
passed  my  life  in  this  pursuit,  it  is  not  without 
a  good  measure  of  right  that  I  proffer  the  claim. 
"Wherefore  I  earnestly  exhort  you,  my  Cicero,  to  read 
carefully  not  only  my  orations,  but  these  books  of 
mine  on  philosophy,  which  already  in  bulk  are 
nearly  equal  to  the  orations.  For  while  in  oratory 
there  is  a  greater  force  of  expression,  the  more  even 
and  moderate  style  of  writing  that  belongs  to  phi- 
losophy ought  also  to  be  cultivated.  And  indeed 
I  do  not  see  that  it  has  fallen  to  any  Greek  author 
to  exercise  himself  in  both  styles,  and  to  pursue  at 
once  forensic  eloquence  and  unimpassioned  philo- 
sophical discussion ;  unless,  perchance,  this  may  be 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  3 

said  of  Demetrius  Phalereus,i  —  a  keen  disputant, 
and  at  the  same  time  an  orator,  though  of  no  great 
power,  yet  with  a  winning  grace  by  which  one 
might  recognize  him  as  a  disciple  of  Theophrastus. 
But  what  proficiency  I  have  made  in  either  style  , 
let  others  judge ;  I  certainly  have  pursued  both.  | 
Indeed,  I  think  that  Plato,  too,  if  he  had  been  dis- 
posed to  attempt  forensic  eloquence,  would  have 
spoken  with  equal  fluency  and  power;  and  that 
Demosthenes,  if  he  had  retained  and  had  wished  to 
put  into  writing  what  he  had  learned  from  Plato, 
would  have  done  so  in  a  style  both  graceful  and 
magnificent.  I  have  the  same  opinion  of  Aristotle 
and  Isocrates,  each  of  whom,  charmed  with  his  own 
department,  held  the  other  in  low  esteem. 

2.  But,  having  determined  to  write  expressly  for 
your  benefit  something  at  the  present  time,  much 
hereafter,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  begin  with  what 
is  most  suitable  both  to  your  age  and  to  my  paren- 
tal authority.  Now,  among  the  many  important 
and  useful  subjects  in  philosophy  that  have  been 
discussed  by  philosophers  with  precision  and  fulness 
of  statement,  their  traditions  and  precepts  concern- 
ing the  duties  of  life  seem  to  have  the  widest  scope. 

1  He  was  known  chiefly  as  an  orator  ;  but  the  list  of  his  numer- 
ons  works  comprises  philosophy,  history,  and  poetry.  Driven 
from  Athens,  he  took  refuge  in  Alexandria  ;  and  it  was  owing  to 
his  influence  that  Ptolemy  Lagi  commenced  the  collection  of  books 
which  grew  into  the  famous  Alexandrian  library.  No  probably 
genuine  work  of  Demetrius  Phalereus  is  now  extant. 


4  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

Indeed,  no  part  of  life,  whether  in  public  or  in  pri- 
vate affairs,  abroad  or  at  home,  in  your  personal  con- 
duct or  your  social  relations,  can  be  free  from  the 
claims  of  duty  ;  and  it  is  in  the  observance  of  duty 
that  lies  all  the  honor  of  life,  in  its  neglect,  all  the 
shame.  This,  too,  is  a  theme  common  to  all  phi- 
losophers. For  who  would  dare  to  call  himself  a 
philosopher,  if  he  took  no  cognizance  of  duty  ?  Yet 
there  are  some  schools  of  philosophy  that  utterly 
pervert  duty  by  the  view  which  they  propose  as  to 
the  supreme  good,  and  as  to  the  opposite  extreme 
of  evil.  For  he  who  so  interprets  the  supreme 
good  as  to  disjoin  it  from  virtue,  and  measures  it 
by  his  own  convenience,  and  not  by  the  standard  of 
right,  —  he,  I  say,  if  he  be  consistent  with  himself, 
and  be  not  sometimes  overcome  by  natural  good- 
ness, can  cultivate  neither  friendship,  nor  justice, 
nor  generosity ;  nor  can  he  possibly  be  brave  while 
he  esteems  pain  as  the  greatest  of  evils,  or  temperate 
while  he  regards  pleasure  as  the  supreme  good. 
These  things,  though  too  obvious  to  need  discussion, 
I  yet  have  discussed  elsewhere.^  Those  schools, 
therefore,  can,  if  self-consistent,  say  nothing  about 
duty;  nor  can  any  precepts  of  duty,  decisive,  immu- 
table, in  accordance  with  nature,  be  promulgated, 
except  by  those  who  maintain  that  the  right  is  to 
be  sought  solely ,2  or  chiefly,^  for  its  own  sake.    This 

1  In  the  De  Finibus.  ^  As  was  the  case  with  the  Stoics. 

*  As  was  the  case  with  the  Peripatetics,  and,  hypothetically, 
with  the  Academics. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  .5 

prerogative  belongs  to  the  Stoics,  the  Academics, 
and  the  Peripatetics ;  for  the  opinions  of  Ariston, 
Pyrrho,  and  Herillus  ^  were  long  since  exploded, 
though  they  might  fittingly  have  discussed  subjects 
pertaining  to  duty,  if  they  had  left  any  ground  for 
the  preference  of  one  thing  over  another,  so  that 
there  might  be  a  way  open  for  the  ascertainment  of 
duty.  In  this  treatise  I  shall  follow  the  Stoics,  not 
as  a  translator,  but  drawing  from  their  fountains  at 
my  own  discretion  and  judgment,  as  much,  and  in 
such  way,  as  may  seem  good. 

I  think  it  fit,  however,  since  duty  is  to  be  my 
sole  subject,  to  define  duty  at  the  outset.^  I  am  sur- 
prised that  Panaetius  should  not  have  done  this; 
for  the  rational  treatment  of  any  subject  ought  to 

1  Ariston,  while  he  regarded  virtue  as  the  supreme  good,  main- 
tained that  among  the  external  conditions  and  objects  with  which 
duty  is  conversant,  there  is  no  ground  for  preference,  therefore  no 
reason  why  one  should  be  sought  or  pursued  rather  than  another. 
Pyrrho,  the  founder  of  the  school  of  the  Sceptics,  in  denying  the 
possibility  of  attaining  any  objective  truth,  denied  the  possi- 
bility of  determining  any  condition,  object,  or  action  to  be  bet- 
ter than  any  other.  Herillus  —  like  Ariston,  a  professed  Stoic 
—  regarded  knowledge  as  the  supreme  good,  and  external  life, 
with  all  its  doings  and  objects,  though  practically  necessary, 
as  of  no  ethical  value,  because  not  contributing  to  the  supreme 
good. 

2  Yet  Cicero  leaves  duty  (officiuin)  undefined.  Offidum  may  be 
abbreviated  from  opifidum,  i.  e.  work-doing  ;  or  it  may  be  derived 
from  ob  and  facio,  in  which  case  it  denotes  doing  on  account  of,  or 
for  a  reason,  and  would  include  all  acts  for  which  a  reason,  i.  e.  a 
right  reason,  can  be  given.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  is  in 
this  latter  sense  that  Cicero  made  choice  and  use  of  the  word. 


6  Cicero  cle  OJlciis. 

take  its  start  from  defiuition,  that  readers  may  un- 
derstand what  the  author  is  writing  about. 

3.  The  discussion  of  duty  is  twofold.  One  divi- 
sion relates  to  the  supreme  good  in  itself  consid- 
ered ;  the  other,  to  tlie  rules  by  which  the  conduct 
of  life  may  in  all  its  parts  be  brought  into  con- 
formity with  the  supreme  good.  Under  the  first 
head  belong  such  questions  as  these  :  Whether 
all  duties  are  of  perfect  obligation;  whether  any 
one  duty  is  greater  than  another ;  and,  in  general, 
inquiries  of  a  similar  kind.  But  the  duties  for 
which  rules  are  laid  down  belong,  indeed,  to  the 
supreme  good,  as  means  to  an  end  ;  yet  this  is  the 
less  obvious,  because  they  ^em  rather  to  have  ref- 
erence to  the  ordering  of  common  life.  It  is  of 
these  that  I  am  going  to  treat  in  the  present  work. 
There  is  also  another  division  of  duty.  Duty  may 
be  said  to  be  either  contingent  or  perfect.  We  may, 
I  think,  give  the  name  of  perfect  duty  to  the  abso- 
lute right,  which  the  Greeks  term  KaropOafia;^ 
while  contingent  duty  is  what  they  call  KaOrJKov? 
According  to  their  definitions,  what  is  right  in  itself 
is  perfect  duty ;  that  for  the  doing  of  which  a  satis- 
factory reason  can  be  given  is  a  contingent  duty. 

According  to  Panaetius,  in  determining  what  we 
ought  to  do  there  are  three  questions  to  be  consid- 
ered.    It  is  first  to  be  determined  whether  the  con- 

1  The  direct,  i.  e.  the  intrinsically  right. 

2  The  fitting,  L  e.  that  which  is  rendered  right  by  circum- 
staiicea. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  7 

templated  act  is  right  or  wrong,  —  a  matter  as  to 
wliich  there  often  are  opposite  opinions.  Then 
there  is  room  for  inquiry  or  consultation  whether 
the  act  under  discussion  is  conducive  to  conven- 
ience and  pleasure,  to  affluence  and  free  command 
of  outward  goods,  to  wealth,  to  power,  in  fine,  to  the 
means  by  which  one  can  benefit  himself  and  those 
dependent  on  him  ;  and  here  the  question  turns  on 
expediency.  The  third  class  of  cases  is  when  what 
appears  to  be  expedient  seems  repugnant  to  the 
right.  For  when  expediency  lays,  as  it  were,  vio- 
lent hands  upon  us,  and  the  right  seems  to  recall  us 
to  itself,  the  mind  is  distracted,  and  laden  with  two- 
fold anxiety  as  to  the  course  of  action.  In  this  dis- 
tribution of  tlie  subject,  while  a  division  ought  by 
all  means  to  be  exhaustive,  there  are  two  omissions. 
Not  only  is  the  question  of  right  or  wrong  as  to  an 
act  wont  to  be  considered,  but  also  the  question,  of 
two  right  things  which  is  the  more  right ;  equally,  of 
two  expedient  things  which  is  the  more  expedient. 
Thus  we  see  that  the  division  which  Panaetius 
thought  should  be  threefold  ought  to  be  distributed 
under  five  heads.  First,  then,  I  am  to  treat  of  the 
right,  but  under  two  heads ;  then,  in  the  same  way, 
of  the  expedient ;  lastly,  of  their  seeming  conflict. 

4.  In  the  beginning,  animals  of  every  species  were 
endowed  with  the  instinct  that  prompts  Hhem  to 
take  care  of  themselves  as  to  life  and  bodily  well- 
being,  to  shun  whatever  threatens  to  do  them  harm, 
and  to  seek  and  provide  whatever  is  necessary  for 


8  Cicero  de  OJlciis. 

subsistence,  as  food,  shelter,  and  other  things  of  this 
sort.  The  appetite  for  sexual  union  for  the  produc- 
tion of  offspring  is,  also,  common  to  all  animals, 
together  with  a  certain  degree  of  care  for  their  off- 
spring. 

But  between  man  and  beast  there  is  this  es- 
sential difference,  that  the  latter,  moved  by  sense 
alone,  adapts  himself  only  to  that  which  is  present 
in  place  and  time,  having  very  little  cognizance  of 
the  past  or  the  future.  Man,  on  the  other  hand  — 
because  he  is  possessed  of  reason,  by  which  he 
discerns  consequences,  sees  the  causes  of  things, 
understands  the  rise  and  progress  of  events,  compares 
similar  objects,  and  connects  and  associates  the  fu- 
ture with  the  present  —  easily  takes  into  view  the 
■whole  course  of  life,  and  provides  things  necessary 
for  it.  Nature  too,  by  virtue  of  reason,  brings  man 
into  relations  of  mutual  intercourse  and  society  with 
his  fellow-men ;  generates  in  him  a  special  love  for 
his  children  ;  prompts  him  to  promote  and  attend 
social  gatherings  and  public  assemblies  ;  and  awak- 
ens in  him  the  desire  to  provide  what  may  suffice 
for  the  support  and  nourishment,  not  of  himself 
alone,  but  of  his  wife,  his  children,  and  others  whom 
he  holds  dear  and  is  bound  to  protect.  This  care 
rouses  men's  minds,  and  makes  them  more  efficient 
in  action.  The  research  and  investigation  of  truth, 
also,  are  a  special  property  of  man.  Thus,  when  we 
are  free  from  necessary  occupations,  we  want  to  see, 
or  hear,  or  learn  something,  and  regard  the  knowl- 


Cicero  dc  OJiciis.  9 

edge  of  things  either  secret  or  wonderful  as  essential 
to  our  living  happily  and  well.^  To  this  desire  for 
seeing  the  truth  is  annexed  a  certain  craving  for  pre- 
cedence, insomuch  that  the  man  well  endowed  by 
nature  is  willing  to  render  obedience  to  no  one,  unless 
to  a  preceptor,  or  a  teacher,  or  one  who  holds  a  just 
and  legitimate  sway  for  the  general  good.  Hence 
are  derived  greatness  of  mind  and  contempt  for  the 
vicissitudes  of  human  fortune.  Nor  does  it  indicate 
any  feeble  force  of  nature  and  of  reason,  that  of  all 
animals  man  alone  has  a  sense  of  order,  and  de- 
cency, and  moderation  in  action  and  in  speech. 
Thus  no  other  animal  feels  the  beauty,  elegance, 
symmetry,  of  the  things  that  he  sees ;  while  by  na- 
ture and  reason,  man,  transferring  these  qualities 
from  the  eyes  to  the  mind,  considers  that  much 
more,  even,  are  beauty,  consistency,  and  order  to  be 
preserved  in  purposes  and  acts,  and  takes  heed  that 
he  do  nothing  indecorous  or  effeminate,  and  still 
more,  that  in  all  his  thoughts  and  deeds  he  neither 
do  nor  think  anything  lascivious.  From  these  ele- 
ments the  right,  which  is  the  object  of  our  inquiry, 
is  composed  and  created  ;  and  this,  even  if  it  be  not 
ennobled  in  title,  yet  is  honorable,  and  even  if  no 
one  praise  it,  we  truly  pronounce  it  in  its  very  na- 
ture worthy  of  all  praise. 

^  It  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  sequel,  Cicero  transposes  the 
virtues  springing  from  man's  social  nature  and  his  desire  for  knowl- 
edge, placing  wisdom  or  pradence  first, ,  and  assigning  the  second 
place  to  justice. 


10  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

5.  You  behold,  indeed,  my  son  Marcus,  the  very- 
form  and,  as  it  were,  the  countenance  of  the  right, 
which,  were  it  seen  by  the  eyes,  as  Plato  says, 
would  awaken  the  intensest  love  of  wisdom.  But 
whatever  is  right  springs  from  one  of  four  sources. 
It  consists  either  in  the  perception  and  skilful 
treatment  of  the  truth  ;  or  in  maintaining  good-fel- 
lowship with  men,  giving  to  every  one  his  due,  and 
keeping  faith  in  contracts  and  promises  ;  or  in  the 
greatness  and  strength  of  a  lofty  and  unconquered 
mind  ;  or  in  the  order  and  measure  that  constitute 
moderation  and  temperance.^  Although  these  four 
are  connected  and  intertwined  with  one  another, 
yet  duties  of  certain  kinds  proceed  from  each  of 
them ;  as  from  the  division  first  named,  including 
wisdom  and  prudence,  proceed  the  investigation  and 
discovery  of  truth,  as  the  peculiar  office  of  that  vir- 
tue. For  in  proportion  as  one  sees  clearly  what  is 
the  inmost  and  essential  truth  with  regard  to  any 
subject,  and  can  demonstrate  it  with  equal  acute- 
ness  and  promptness,  he  is  wont  to  be  regarded,  and 
justly,  as  of  transcendent  discretion  and  wisdom. 
Therefore  truth  is  submitted  to  this  virtue  as  the 

^  These  four  virtues  may  be  easily  so  enlarged  in  their  scope 
as  to  cover  the  whole  of  life,  and  to  comprehend  the  entire  duty  of 
man.  Thus,  Prudence  embraces  all  selfward  obligations  ;  Justice 
(which  includes  benevolence,  and  is  not  exclusive  of  piety),  all 
duties  to  fellow-beings  ;  Fortitude  (including  patience,  submission, 
and  courage),  duty  with  reference  to  objects  and  events  beyond 
one's  control  ;  Order  (in  time,  place,  and  measure),  duty  with  ref- 
erence to  objects  under  one's  control. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  11 

material  of  which  it  treats,  and  with  which  it  is 
conversant.  The  other  three  virtues  have  for  their 
sphere  the  providing  and  preserving  of  those  things 
on  which  the  conduct  of  life  depends,  so  that  the 
fellowship  and  union  of  society  may  be  maintained, 
and  that  superiority  and  greatness  of  mind  may  shine 
forth,  not  only  in  the  increase  of  resources  and  the 
acquisition  of  objects  of  desire  for  one's  self,  and  for 
those  dependent  on  him,  but  much  more  in  a  posi- 
tion from  which  one  can  look  down  on  these  very 
things.  But  order,  and  consistency,  and  moderation, 
and  similar  qualities  have  their  scope  in  affairs  that 
demand  not  merely  the  movement  of  the  mind,  but 
some  outward  action ;  for  it  is  by  bringing  to  the 
concerns  of  daily  life  a  certain  method  and  order 
that  we  shall  maintain  honor  and  propriety. , 

6.  Of  the  four  heads  into  which  I  have  divided 
the  nature  and  force  of  the  right,  the  first,  which 
consists  in  the  cognizance  of  truth,  bears  the  closest 
relation  to  human  nature.  For  we  are  all  attracted 
and  drawn  to  the  desire  of  knowledge  and  wisdom, 
in  which  we  deem  it  admirable  to  excel,  but  both 
an  evil  and  a  shame  to  fail,  to  be  mistaken,  to  be 
ignorant,  to  be  deceived.  In  this  quest  of  knowl- 
edge, both  natural  and  right,  there  are  two  faults  to 
be  shunned,  —  one,  the  taking  of  unknown  things 
for  known,  and  giving  our  assent  to  them  too  hastily, 
which  fault  he  who  wishes  to  escape  (and  all  ought 
so  to  wish)  will  give  time  and  diligence  to  reflect  on 
the  subjects  proposed  for  his  consideration.     The 


12  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

other  fault  is  that  some  bestow  too  great  zeal  and 
too  much  labor  on  things  obscure  and  difficult,  and  at 
the  same  time  useless.  These  faults  being  shunned, 
whatever  labor  and  care  may  be  bestowed  on  sub- 
jects becoming  a  virtuous  mind  and  worth  know- 
ing, will  be  justly  commended.  Thus  we  learn  that 
Caius  Sulpicius  was  versed  in  astronomy,^  as  I  my- 
self knew  Sextius  Pompeius  to  be  in  geometry ,2  as 
many  are  in  logic,  many  in  civil  law,  —  all  which 
sciences  are  concerned  in  the  investigation  of  truth, 
but  by  whose  pursuit  duty  will  not  suffer  one  to  be 
drawn  away  from  the  active  management  of  affairs. 
For  the  reputation  of  virtue  consists  wholly  in  active 
life,  from  which,  however,  there  is  often  a  respite, 
and  frequent  opportunities  are  afforded  for  returning 
to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  At  the  same  time 
mental  activity,  which  never  ceases,  may  retain  us, 
without  conscious  effort,  in  meditation  on  the  subjects 
of  our  study.  But  aU.  thought  and  mental  action  ought 
to  be  occupied  either  in  taking  counsel  as  to  the 
things  that  are  right  and  that  appertain  to  a  good 

1  When  serving  in  the  Macedonian  war,  as  military  tribune 
under  Aemilius  Paulus,  he  predicted  an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  and 
obtained  liberty  to  announce  his  prediction  to  the  assembled 
army,  thus  precluding  the  else  inevitable  terror  and  foreboding 
which  pervaded  the  Macedonian  army,  and  very  probably  turning 
the  scale  in  favor  of  the  Romans  in  the  then  imminent  battle  in 
which  Perseus,  tlie  Macedonian  king,  was  utterly  overthrown. 

2  Uncle  of  Cneius  Pompeius  Magnus,  not  in  political  life,  but 
celebrated  for  his  proficiency  in  geometry,  jurisprudence,  and 
philosophy.    He  was  a  Stoic 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  13 

and  happy  life,  or  in  the  pursuit  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge.  I  have  thus  spoken  of  the  first  source 
of  duty. 

7.  Of  the  remaining  three  heads,  the  principle 
which  constitutes  the  bond  of  human  society  and  of 
a  virtual  community  of  life  has  the  widest  scope. 
Of  this  there  are  two  divisions, —  justice,  in  which 
consists  the  greatest  lustre  of  virtue,  and  which 
those  who  possess  are  termed  good ;  and  in  close 
alliance  with  justice,  beneficence,  which  may  also  be 
called  benignity  or  liberality.  The  first  demand  of 
justice  is,  that  no  one  do  harm  to  another,  unless 
provoked  by  injury ;  ^  the  next,  that  one  use  com- 
mon possessions  as  common,  private,  as  belonging  I 
to  their  owners.  Private  possessions,  indeed,  are 
not  so  by  nature,  but  by  ancient  occupancy,  as  in 
the  case  of  settlers  in  a  previously  uninhabited 
region ;  or  by  conquest,  as  in  the  territory  acquired 
in  war ;  or  by  law,  treaty,  agreement,  or  lot.^  Thus 
it  comes  to  pass  that  the  territory  of  Arpinas  is  said 
to  belong  to  the  Arpinates,  that  of  Tusculum  to 
the  Tuscans,  and  a  similar  account  is  to  be  given 
of  the  possessions  of  individual  owners.  Because 
each  person  thus  has  for  his  own  a  portion  of  those 

1  This  exception  is  one  of  the  few  points  of  discrepancy  be-  j  ^  V.\^  ^ 
tween  the   Ciceronian   ethics  and   the  moral  precepts  of  Chiis-  i 
tianity. 

2  The  veterans  who  settled  on  the  public  lands  {coloni)  re- 
ceived their  portions  of  land  by  lot,  and  when  a  limited  number 
from  a  particular  corps  were  to  be  colonized,  the  persons  to  be  col- 
onized were  determined  by  lot. 


14  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

things  which  were  common  by  nature,  let  each  hold 
undisturbed  what  has  fallen  to  his  possession.  If 
any  one  endeavors  to  obtain  more  for  himself,  he 
will  violate  the  law  of  human  society.  But  since, 
as  it  has  been  well  said  by  Plato,  we  are  not  born 
for  ourselves  alone ;  since  our  country  claims  a  part 
in  us,  onr  parents  a  part,  our  friends  a  part ;  and 
since,  according  to  the  Stoics,  whatever  the  earth 
bears  is  created  for  the  use  of  men,  while  men  were 
brought  into  being  for  the  sake  of  men,  that  they 
might  do  good  to  one  another,  —  in  this  matter  we 
ought  to  follow  nature  as  a  guide,  to  contribute  our 
part  to  the  common  good,  and  by  the  interchange  of 
kind  offices,  both  in  giving  and  receiving,  alike  by 
skill,  by  labor,  and  by  the  resources  at  our  com- 
mand, to  strengthen  the  social  union  of  men  among 
men.  But  the  foundation  of  justice  is  good  faith, 
that  is,  steadfastness  and  truth  in  promises  and 
agreements.  Hence,  though  it  may  seem  to  some 
too  far-fetched,  I  may  venture  to  imitate  the  Stoics 
in  their  painstaking  inquiry  into  the  origin  of  words, 
and  to  derive  faith  ^  from  the  fact  corresponding  to 
the  promise. 

Of  injustice  there  are  two  kinds,  —  one,  that  of 
tliose  who  inflict  injury  ;  the  other,  that  of  those  who 
do  not,  if  they  can,  repel  injury  from  those  on  whom 

1  Fides,  from  Jit  quod  dictum  est,  a  derivation  certainly  very 
improbable,  but  hardly  more  so  than  the  derivation  from  irlaTis, 
or,  in  the  Aeolic  dialect,  irirTis,  which  most  lexicographers  assign 
to  fides. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  15 

it  is  inflicted.  Moreover,  he  who,  moved  by  anger 
or  by  some  disturbance  of  mind,  makes  an  unjust 
assault  on  any  person,  is  as  one  who  lays  violent 
hands  on  a  casual  companion ;  while  he  who  does 
not,  if  he  can,  ward  off  or  resist  the  injury  offered 
to  another,  is  as  much  in  fault  as  if  he  were  to  desert 
his  parents,  or  his  friends,  or  his  country.  Indeed, 
those  injuries  which  are  purposely  inflicted  for  the 
sake  of  doing  harm,  often  proceed  from  fear,  he  who 
meditates  harm  to  another  apprehending  that,  if  he 
refrains,  he  himself  may  suffer  harm.  But  for  the 
most  part  men  are  induced  to  injure  others  in  order 
to  obtain  what  they  covet ;  and  here  avarice  is  the 
most  frequent  motive. 

8.  Wealth  is  sought  sometimes  for  the  necessary 
uses  of  life,  sometimes  for  indulgence  in  luxury.  In 
those  possessed  of  a  higher  order  of  mind  the  desire 
for  money  is  entertained  with  a  view  to  the  increase 
of  the  means  of  influence  and  the  power  of  generous 
giving.     Thus,  not  long  ago,  Marcus  Crassus  ^  pro- 

1  Surnamed  Dives.  He  inherited  this  cognomen,  and  belonged 
to  the  fifth  generation  of  the  |7e?is  Licinius  that  had  borne  it.  His 
prime  ambition  seems  to  have  been  to  verify  his  name.  Pliny 
says  that  the  estates  which  he  owned  outside  of  Rome  amounted  in 
value  to  two  hundred  millions  of  sesterces,  equivalent  to  little  less 
than  eight  millions  of  dollars,  no  account  being  taken  of  tlie 
much  greater  value  of  money  then  than  no\y.  He  was  a  man  of 
respectable  ability,  of  no  mean  reputation  as  an  orator,  and  of  con- 
siderable executive  capacity  ;  but  it  was  probably  his  wealth  that 
gave  him  his  place  in  the  triumvirate  with  Caesar  and  Pompey, 
and  that  thus  procured  for  him  the  command  in  the  Parthian  war, 
in  which  he  lost  his  army  and  his  life. 


16  Cicero  de  Ojlciis. 

nounced  no  property  sufficient  for  one  who  meant 
to  hold  a  foremost  place  in  the  republic,  unless  its 
income  would  enable  him  to  support  an  army. 
Others,  again,  delight  in  magnificent  furniture,  and 
in  an  elegant  and  profuse  style  of  living.  In  all 
these  ways  there  has  come  to  be  an  unbounded 
desire  for  money.  Nor,  indeed,  is  the  increase  of 
property,  without  harm  to  any  one,  to  be  blamed ; 
but  wrong-doing  for  the  sake  of  gain  is  never  to  be 
tolerated.  Most  of  all,  however,  large  numbers  of 
persons  are  led  to  lose  sight  of  justice  by  the  crav- 
ing for  military  commands,  civic  honors,  and  fame. 
The  saying  of  Ennius, 

"  Where  kingship  is  concerned, 
No  social  bond  or  covenant  is  sacred," 

has  a  much  broader  application  ;  for,  as  to  whatever 
is  of  such  a  nature  that  but  few  can  be  foremost  in  it, 
there  is  generally  so  keen  a  rivalry  that  it  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  keep  social  duty  inviolate.  This 
was  recently  illustrated  by  the  audacity  of  Caius 
Caesar,  who  overturned  all  laws,  human  and  divine, 
to  obtain  the  sovereignty  which  he  had  shaped  for 
himself  in  the  vagaries  of  his  fancy.  In  this  re- 
spect it  is  indeed  unfortunate  that  it  is,  for  the 
most  part,  in  the  greatest  minds  and  in  men  of 
transcendent  genius  that  the  desire  for  offices  civil 
and  military,  for  power  and  for  fame,  is  rife.  The 
more  heed,  therefore,  is  to  be  taken  against  criminal 
conduct  in  this  matter. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  17 

But  in  every  form  of  injustice  it  makes  a  very  es- 
sential difference  whether  the  wrong  be  committed 
in  some  disturbance  of  mind,  which  is  generally 
brief  and  temporary,  or  whether  it  be  done  advisedly, 
and  with  premeditation.  For  those  things  which 
are  done  from  some  sudden  impulse  are  more  venial 
than  what  is  done  with  plan  and  forethought. 
Enough  has  now  been  said  with  regard  to  the  in- 
fliction of  injury. 

9.  For  omitting  to  defend  the  injured,  and  thus 
abandoning   duty,  there  are  many  reasons  in  cur- 
rent force.     Men  are  sometimes  unwilling  to  incur 
the  enmity,  or   the  labor,  or  the  cost  involved  in 
such  defence ;  or  by  mere  carelessness,  indolence, 
sloth,  or  engrossment  in  pursuits  or  employments  of 
their  own,  they  are  so  retarded  in  their  movements 
as  to  leave  undefended  those  whom  they  ought  to 
protect.      It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Plato  is  not' 
entirely  in  the  right  when  he  says  of  philosophers,  I 
that  because  they  are  engaged  in  the  investigation  I 
of  truth,  and  because   they  despise  and  count  as 
naught  what  most  persons  eagerly  seek  and  are  al- 
ways ready  to  fight  with  each  other  for,  they  are  i 
therefore  just  men.^     They  indeed  attain  one  part 
of  justice,  in  injuring  no  one :  they  fail  as  to  the 
other  part ;  for,  kept  inactive  by  their  zeal  for  learn- 
ing, they  forsake  those  whom  they  ought  to  defend. 
Plato  thinks,  too,  that  they  will  take  no  part  in  pub- 1 

1  This  is  the  substance  of  a  discussion  in  the  6th  Book  of 
Pkto's  Republic. 

2 


18  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

lie  affairs,  unless  by  compulsion.  But  it  were  more 
fitting  that  they  should  do  this  of  their  own  accord  ; 
for  the  very  thing  which  it  is  right  to  do,  can  be 
termed  virtuous  only  if  it  be  voluntary.  There  are, 
also,  those  who,  either  from  the  over-anxious  care  of 
their  property  or  from  misanthropic  feeling,  profess 
to  confine  their  attention  to  their  own  affairs,  so  as 
to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of  doing  injury  to  any 
one.  They  are  free  from  one  kind  of  injustice : 
they  fall  into  the  other;  for  they  forsake  social 
duty,  inasmuch  as  they  bestow  upon  it  neither  care, 
nor  labor,  nor  cost.  Since,  then,  we  have  assigned 
to  each  of  the  two  kinds  of  injustice  its  inducing 
causes,  having  previously  determined  the  constitu- 
ent elements  of  justice,  we  shall  easily  ascertain  the 
specific  duty  of  any  particular  occasion,  unless  we 
be  blinded  by  inordinate  self-love.  However,  the 
care  of  other  men's  concerns  is  difficult.  Although 
Chremes,  in  Terence's  play,  thinks  nothing  human 
indifferent  to  him,  yet  because  we  perceive  and  feel 
the  things,  prosperous  or  adverse,  which  happen  to 
ourselves  more  keenly  than  those  that  happen  to 
others,  which  we  see,  as  it  were,  at  a  great  distance, 
we  decide  concerning  them  otherwise  than  we 
should  concerning  ourselves  in  like  case.  There- 
fore those  give  good  counsel  who  forbid  our  doing 
that  as  to  the  equity  of  which  we  have  any  doubt. 
For  equity  is  self-evident ;  doubt  implies  a  suspi- 
cion of  wrong. 

10.  But  there  are  frequent  occasions  when  those 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  19 

things  which  are  generally  regarded  as  worthy  of  a 
just  man,  and  one  of  good  report,  such  as  the  restor- 
ing of  a  trust  or  the  fulfilment  of  a  promise,  are  re- 
versed, and  become  the  opposite  of  right,  and  what 
belongs  to  truth  and  good  faith  seems  to  change  its 
bearing,  so  that  justice  demands  its  violation.  Here 
reference  is  fittingly  made  to  what  I  have  laid  down 
as  the  fundamental  principles  of  justice,  first,  that 
injury  should  be  done  to  no  one,  and  in  the  next 
place,  that  service  should  be  rendered  to  the  com- 
mon good.  When  these  principles  are  modified  by 
circumstances,  duty  is  also  modified,  and  is  not  al- 
ways the  same.  There  may  perchance  be  some 
promise  or  agreement,  the  fulfilment  of  which  is 
harmful  to  him  to  whom  the  promise  was  made  or 
to  him  who  made  it.  Thus,  to  take  an  instance 
from  the  popular  mythology,  if  Neptune  had  not 
kept  his  promise  to  Theseus,^  Theseus  would  not 
have  been  bereft  of  his  son,  Hippolytus  ;  for,  of  the 

•  Among  the  myths  as  to  the  parentage  of  Theseus,  there  is  one 
which  makes  him  the  son  of  Poseidon,  or  Neptune,  who  was  said 
to  have  promised  to  grant  him  three  wishes,  two  of  which  had 
already  been  granted,  when  Phaedra,  his  wife,  accused  her  step-son 
Hippolytus  of  an  attempted  criminal  intrigue  with  her.  Theseus 
claimed  of  Poseidon  his  son's  destruction,  and  Poseidon  accord- 
ingly sent  a  bull  from  the  water  to  frighten  the  horses  of  Hippo- 
lytus, as  he  was  driving  in  his  chariot  by  the  sea-shore.  The 
horses  upset  the  chariot,  and  dragged  Hippolytus  till  he  died. 
Theseus  too  late  ascertained  that  his  son  was  innocent,  and  that  his 
wife  had  falsely  accused  him  because  he  had  repulsed  her  adrancea 
toward  a  criminal  intimacy. 


20 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


three  wishes  which  Neptune  had  promised  to  grant 
him,  the  third,  as  the  story  runs,  was  his  demand  in 
anger  for  the  death  of  Hippolytus,  the  granting  of 
which  plunged  him  into  the  deepest  sorrow.  Prom- 
ises, then,  are  not  to  be  kept,  when  by  keeping  them 
you  do  harm  to  those  to  whom  they  are  made ;  nor 
yet  if  they  injure  you  more  than  they  benefit  him 
to  whom  you  made  them,  is  it  contrary  to  duty  that 
the  greater  good  should  be  preferred  to  the  less.^ 
For  instance,  if  you  engaged  to  appear  as  an  advo- 
cate in  an  impending  lawsuit,  and  meanwhile  your 
child  became  severely  ill,  you  would  not  fail  in  your 
duty  to  your  client  by  breaking  your  promise  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  he  to  whom  you  made  the  promise  would 
be  false  to  his  duty,  if  he  complained  of  your  desert- 
ing him.  Again,  who  does  not  perceive  that  promises 
extorted  by  fear,^  or  obtained  by  fraud,  are  not  to 
be  kept  ?    Indeed,  such  promises  are  made  void,  in 


-sV. 


1  The  Hebrew  conception  of  righteousness,  "  He  that  sweareth 
to  his  own  hurt  and  changeth  not,"  is  certainly  in  closer  accord- 
ance with  the  absolute  right  than  this  maxim  of  Cicero.  Yet 
Cicero's  example  under  this  head  really  belongs  to  another  cate- 
gory, that  of  circumstances  so  altered  as  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
case  to  make  a  promise  void. 

2  A  Fpromise  wTong  in  itself  cannot  be  rightfully  made,  even 
under  stress  of  fear;  and  if  made,  should  not  be  kept ;  for  two 
wrongs  cannot  make  a  right.  But  a  promise  which  one  has  a 
right  to  make,  as  that  of  a  ransom  for  one's  life,  is  sacred  in  the 
forum  of  conscience,  if  not  binding  in  law.  If  a  man  regards  his 
life  as  worth  a  certain  price,  and  offers  that  price,  there  is  no 
rightful  reason  why  he  should  not  pay  it. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  21 

most  cases  by  praetorian  edict,^  in  some  by  express 
statutes. 

There  are,  also,  wrongs  committed  by  a  sort  of 
chicanery,  which  consists  in  a  too  subtle,  and  thus 
fraudulent,  interpretation  of  the  right.  Hence  comes 
the  saying :  The  extreme  of  right  is  the  extreme  of 
wrong.  Under  this  head,  there  have  been  many  vio- 
lations of  the  right  in  the  administration  of  public 
affairs,  as  in  the  case  of  him  who,  during  a  thirty  i 
days'  truce  with  an  enemy,  ravaged  the  enemy's  ter- 1 
ritory  by  night,  on  the  pretext  that  the  truce  had ' 
been  agreed  upon  for  so  many  days,  not  nights.^  Nor 
can  we  approve  of  our  fellow-citizen,  if  the  story  is 
true,  that  Quintus  Fabius  Labeo,  or  some  one  else,  — 
I  know  of  the  matter  only  by  hearsay,  —  being  ap- 
pointed by  the  Senate  as  an  umpire  between  the 
people  of  Nola  and  those  of  Neapolis  about  their 
boundaries,  when  he  came  to  the  spot,  argued  with 
each  party  separately  that  they  should  not  be  greedy 
or  covetous,  but  should  rather  recede  than  advance 
in  their  demands  of  each  other.     When  they  had 

1  The  praetor  urhanus  was  virtually  the  chief  justice  of  Rome.  * 
On  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  he  published  a  manifesto, ' 
or  edictum,  stating  the  principles  to  be  recognized  by  him  in  the  | 
interpretation  and  application  of  the  laws.  The  principles  laid 
down  in  these  successive  edicts,  and  those  involved  in  praetorian 
decisions  under  them,  unless  abrogated  or  nullified  by  express 
legislation,  were  regarded  as  having  the  force  of  law,  and  corre- 
sponded to  what  we  familiarly  term  judge-made  law. 

2  There  are  two  transactions  of  this  kind  on  record,  —  one  of 
Cleomenes,  the  Spartan  king,  in  a  war  with  Argos  ;  the  other,  of 
the  Thracians,  when  at  war  with  the  Boeotians. 


22  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

hoih.  complied  with  his  advice,  there  remained  some 
territory  between  these  previously  contiguous  states ; 
and  so  he  fixed  their  bounds  in  accordance  with 
their  respective  claims,  and  adjudged  the  interme- 
diate territory  to  the  Eoman  people.^  This,  indeed, 
is  swindling,  not  arbitration.  Shrewdness  like  this 
is  to  be  shunned  in  transactions  of  every  kind. 

11.  There  are  also  certain  duties  to  be  observed 
toward  those  who  may  have  injured  you.  For  there 
is  a  limit  to  revenge  and  punishment,  —  nay,  I  know 
not  whether  it  may  not  be  enough  for  him  who 
gave  the  provocation  to  repent  of  his  wrong-doing, 
so  that  he  may  not  do  the  like  again,  and  that  others 
may  be  the  less  disposed  to  do  as  he  has  done.  In  the 
public  administration,  also,  the  rights  of  war  are  to  be 
held  sacred.  While  there  are  two  ways  of  contending, 
one  by  discussion,  the  other  by  force,  the  former  be- 
longing properly  to  man,  tlie  latter  to  beasts,  recourse 
must  be  had  to  the  latter  if  there  be  no  opportunity 
for  employing  the  former.  Wars,  then,  are  to  be 
waged  in  order  to  render  it  possible  to  live  in  peace 
without  injury  ;  but,  victory  once  gained,  those  are 
to  be  spared  who  have  not  been  cruel  and  inhuman 
in  war,  as  our  ancestors  even  admitted  to  citizenship 

^  Quintus  Fabius  Labeo  lived  more  than  a  century  before 
Cicero.  Valerius  Maximus  tells  the  same  stor}%  but  without  ex- 
pressing any  doubt  as  to  the  name  of  the  umpire.  He  adds  that 
the  same  Labeo,  after  a  victory  over  Antiochus,  King  of  Mace- 
donia, having  made  peace  on  condition  of  the  surrender  of  half 
of  the  king's  fleet,  cut  all  the  vessels  into  halves,  so  as  utterly  to 
destroy  the  fleet. 


Cicero  de  Officiis,  23 

the  Tuscans,  the  Aequi,  the  Volsci,  the  Sabines,  the 
Hernici ;  while  they  utterly  destroyed  Carthage  and 
Numantia.  I  could  wish  that  they  had  not  de- 
stroyed Corinth ;  but  I  believe  that  they  had  some 
motive,  especially  the  convenience  of  the  place  for 
hostile  movements,  —  the  fear  that  tlie  very  situa- 
tion might  be  an  inducement  to  rebellion.^  In  my 
opinion,  peace  is  always  to  be  sought  when  it  can 
be  made  on  perfectly  fair  and  honest  conditions. 
In  this  matter  had  my  opinion  been  followed,  we 
should  now  have,  not  indeed  the  best  republic  pos- 
sible, but  a  republic  of  some  sort,  which  is  no  longer 
ours.  Still  further,  while  those  whom  you  conquer 
are  to  be  kindly  treated,  those  who,  laying  .down 
their  arms,  take  refuge  in  the  good  faith  of  the  com- 
mander of  the  assailing  army,  ought  to  be  received 
to  quarter,  even  though  the  battering-ram  have  al- 
ready shaken  their  walls.^  In  this  respect  justice 
used  to  be  so  carefully  observed  by  our  people,  that 
by  the  custom  of  our  ancestors  those  who  received 
into  allegiance  states  or  nations  subdued  in  war 
were  their  patrons.  Indeed,  the  rights  of  war  are 
prescribed  with  the  most  sacred  care  by  the  fecial 
law^  of  the  Eoman  people,  from  which  it  may  be 

^  Corintli  had  two  ports,  —  one  commanding  the  Ionian,  the 
other  the  Aegean  sea. 

2  It  was  the  established  custom  of  the  Eomans  to  admit  to 
quarter  enemies  who  surrendered  before  the  application  of  the 
battering-ram  to  their  walls. 

^  So  called  from  the  fetiales,  —  priests  whose  duty  it  was,  as 
heralds,  to  perform  all  the  ceremonies  connected  with  the  declara- 


24  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

understood  that  no  war  is  just  unless  after  a  formal 
demand  of  satisfaction  for  injury,  or  after  an  express 
declaration  and  proclamation  of  hostilities.  Popil- 
ius,  as  commander,  held  control  of  a  province.  A 
son  of  Cato  served  his  first  campaign  in  his  army. 
When  Popilius  saw  fit  to  discharge  one  of  the 
legions,  he  discharged  also  Cato's  son,  who  served 
in  that  same  legion.  But  when  the  youth  remained 
in  the  army  for  love  of  military  service,  Cato  wrote 
to  Popilius  that  if  he  permitted  his  son  to  stay,  he 
must  make  him  take  a  second  oath  of  military  duty, 
else,  the  term  of  the  first  oath  having  expired,  he 
could  not  lawfully  fight  with  the  enemy.  Thus 
there  used  to  be  the  most  scrupulous  observance  of 
the  right  in  the  conduct  of  war.  There  is,  indeed, 
extant  a  letter  of  Marcus  Cato  the  elder  to  his  son 
Marcus,  in  which  he  writes  that  he  has  heard  of  his 
son's  discharge  by  the  consul,  after  service  in  Mace- 
donia in  the  war  with  Perseus,  and  warns  him  not 
to  go  into  battle,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  right  for 
one  who  is  no  longer  a  soldier  to  fight  with  the 
enemy.^ 

tion  of  war,  the  ratifying  of  peace,  and  tlie  making  of  treaties. 
These  forms  were  regarded  as  religious  solemnities. 

1  Commentatoi-s  in  general  see  here  two  versions  of  the  same 
story,  and  suppose  one  of  the  two  to  be  spurious.  Yet  there  is  no 
reason  other  than  the  internal  evidence  for  rejecting  either,  and 
they  may  both  be  true  of  the  same  Cato  and  the  same  son.  The 
Ligurian  war  in  which  Popilius  was  commander  occurred  four 
years  before  the  war  with  Perseus.  In  the  former,  Marcus  Cato 
the  younger  may  have  made  his  first  campaign,  and  in  the  latter, 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  25 

12.  In  this  connection  it  occurs  to  my  mind  that 
in  the  early  time  the  name  denoting  an  enemy  en- 
gaged in  actual  war  was  the  word  employed  to  de- 
note a  foreigner,  the  unpleasantness  of  the  fact  being 
thus  relieved  by  the  mildness  of  the  term ;  for  he 
whom  we  call  a  foreigner  bore  with  our  ancestors 
the  appellation  which  we  now  give  to  an  enemy. 
The  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  show  this,  as,  for 
instance,  "  A  day  assigned  for  trial  with  a  foreigner," 
"Perpetual  right  of  ownership  as  against  a  for- 
eigner." 1     What  can  more  truly  indicate  gentleness 

though  no  longer  a  tiro  or  novice  in  the  art  of  war,  he  may  have 
been  discharged  as  before,  and  his  father  have  repeated  his  legal 
objection  to  the  son's  continuous  service. 

1  This  passage  can  be  literally  rendered  only  by  retaining  the 
Latin  terms  employed,  as  thus:  "  He  who  by  our  present  usage 
would  be  called  perduellis  was  in  former  time  called  liostis, ,  the 
unpleasantness  of  the  fact  being  thus  relieved  by  the  mildness  of 
the  terra;  for  him  whom  we  now  term  peregrinus  our  ancestors 
called  hostis.  The  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  show  this,  as,  for 
instance,  '  A  day  assigned  for  trial  cum  hoste,'  '  Perpetual  right 
of  ownership  adversus  hostem. '  " 

In  extant  Latin  literature  the  use  of  hostis  in  the  sense  of 
enemy  seems  to  have  been  nearly,  if  not  quite,  universal.  There 
is,  indeed,  a  passage  in  Plautus  in  which  the  word  is  evidently 
used  in  the  sense  oi  foreigner;  but  this  appears  to  be  a  reference 
to  the  title  in  the  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  cited  above,  status 
dies  cum  hoste.  It  seems  by  no  means  unlikely  that  the  two 
meanings  of  hostis  may  have  co-existed  in  early  use.  Hostis 
probably  is  derived  from  the  same  root  with  ia-ria  (whence  comes 
Vesta),  a  hearth,  or  —  what  was  the  same  thing  as  to  the  rites 
of  domestic  worship  —  an  altar;  and  if  so,  hostis  might  mean 
either  a  stranger  to  be  received  to  the  hospitality  of  the  hearth, 
or  an  enemy  to  be  made  a  victim  at  the  altar.     Hostia,  an  ani- 


26  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

of  spirit  than  calling  him  with  whom  you  are  at 
war  by  so  mild  a  name?  Yet  time  has  made  that 
word  harsher ;  for  it  has  ceased  to  denote  a  foreigner, 
and  has  retained,  as  properly  belonging  to  it,  its 
application  to  an  adversary  in  arms.  Even  when 
there  is  a  contest  for  power,  and  fame  is  sought  in 
war,  there  ought  still  to  underlie  the  conflict  the 
same  grounds  that  I  have  named  above  as  just 
causes  for  war.  But  the  wars  waged  for  superiority 
in  honor  or  in  dominion  should  be  conducted  with 
less  bitterness  of  feeling  than  where  there  are  actual 
wrongs  to  be  redressed.  For  as  we  contend  with 
a  fellow-citizen  in  one  way  if  he  is  an  enemy,  in  a 
very  different  way  if  he  is  a  rival,  —  the  contest  with 
the  latter  being  for  honor  and  promotion,  with  the 
former  for  life  and  reputation,  —  so  our  wars  with 
the  Celtiberi  and  the  Cimbri  were  waged  as  with 
enemies,  to  determine  not  which  should  come  off 
conqueror,  but  which  should  survive ;  while  with 
the  Latins,  the  Sabines,  the  Samnites,  the  Carthagin- 
ians, Pyrrhus,  the  contest  was  for  superiority.  The 
Carthaginians,  indeed,  violated  their  treaties  ;  Han- 
nibal was  cruel ;  the  others  were  more  worthy  of 

mal  sacrificed,  and  hostire,  to  strike,  throw  light  upon  this  last 
meaning. 

Some  of  the  old  lexicographers,  including  no  less  a  man  than 
Scaliger,  derive  hostis  from  the  pronoun  Sens,  whoever,  i.  e.  any 
person  whatsoever  outside  of  one's  own  family,  neighborhood,  or 
nation,  a  stranger,  and  therefore,  prima  facie  an  enemy.  With 
this  derivation  —  which  I  do  not  regard  as  valid  —  the  two  mean- 
ings of  hostis  might  have  been  coeval  and  concurrent. 


Cicero  de  Offieiis.  27 

confidence.     Indeed,  what  Pyrrhus  said  about  re- 
storing the  captives  of  war  is  admirable :  — 

"  I  ask  that  you  should  give  no  gold,  no  price; 
In  war  I  ply  no  trade  but  sword  with  sword  ; 
With  steel,  and  not  with  gold,  stake  we  our  lives. 
Wills  queenly  Fortune  you  or  I  should  rule, 
Try  we  by  might.     And  bear  this  message  with  you,  — 
For  those  whose  prowess  Fortune  spared  in  battle 
Freedom  is  also  spared  by  my  decree. 
Lead  them  away,  —  I  grant,  — the  gods  approve."  * 

A  sentiment  truly  royal,  and  worthy  of  the  race  of 
the  Aeacidae.^ 

13.  Still  further,  if  any  person,  induced  by  stress 
of  circumstances,  makes  a  promise  to  a  public 
enemy,  good  faith  must  be  observed  in  keeping 
such  a  promise.  Tlius  Eegulus,  in  the  first  Punic 
war,  taken  captive  by  the  Carthaginians,  sent  to 
Eome  to  negotiate  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  and 
bound  by  an  oath  to  return,  in  the  first  place,  on 
his  arrival,  gave  his  opinion  in  the  Senate  that  the 
prisoners  should  not  be  sent  back,  and  then,  when 
his  kindred  and  friends  tried  to  retain  him,  pre- 
ferred returning  to  punishment  to  breaking  his 
faith  with  the  enemy. 

^  These  verses  are  from  the  "  Annales"  of  Ennius,  and  are  sup- 
posed to  be  addressed  to  the  deputies  sent  with  a  large  sum  of 
money  to  treat  with  Pyrrhus  for  the  release  of  prisoners  after  the 
battle  of  Ileraclea,  b.  c.  280. 

2  The  kings  of  Epeirus  claimed  to  be  lineal  descendants  of 
Aeacus,  the  son  of  Zeus,  who  for  the  righteousness  of  his  rule  on 
earth  was  made  judge  in  the  under-world. 


28  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

But  in  the  second  Punic  war,  after  the  battle  of 
Cannae,  the  ten  men  whom  Hannibal  sent  to  Eome 
bound  by  an  oath  that  they  would  return  unless 
they  obtained  the  redemption  of  the  prisoners  of 
war,  were  all  disfranchised  for  life  ^  by  the  censors, 
because  they  had  perjured  themselves.  Nor  did 
that  one  of  the  ten  escape  who  had  incurred  guilt 
by  the  fraudulent  performance  of  his  oath.  He, 
having  been  suffered  by  Hannibal  to  leave  the 
camp,  returned  shortly  afterward,  saying  that  he 
had  forgotten  something.  Then  going  out  again 
from  the  camp,  he  imagined  himself  acquitted  of 
his  oath,  and  he  was  so  in  words  alone,  not  in  fact. 
But  in  a  promise,  what  you  mean,  not  what  you 
say,  is  always  to  be  taken  into  account.  The  most 
illustrious  example  of  justice  toward  an  enemy  was 
presented  by  our  ancestors,  when  the  Senate  and 
Caius  Fabricius  sent  back  to  Pyrrhus  a  deserter 
who  promised  the  Senate  to  kill  the  king  by  poison. 
Thus  they  refused  to  sanction  the  murder  of  an 
enemy,  and  a  powerful  one,  and  one  who  was  mak- 
ing war  on  them  without  provocation. 

Enough  has  now  been  said  about  duties  connected 
with  war. 

We  should  also  bear  it  in  mind  that  justice  is 
to  be  maintained  even  toward  those  of  the  lowest 
condition.  But  the  lowest  condition  and  fortune 
is  that  of  slaves,  who,  it  has  been  well  said,  ought 

*  Literally,  left  among  the  aerarii,  i.  e.  liable  to  taxation,  but 
without  the  rights  of  citizenship. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  29 

to  be  treated  as  hired  servants,  to  have  their  daOy 
tasks  assigned  them,  and  to  receive  a  just  compen- 
sation for  their  labor.^  In  fine,  while  wrong  may 
he  done  in  two  ways,  either  by  force  or  by  fraud, 
the  latter  seems  to  belong,  as  it  were,  to  the  fox, 
the  former  to  the  lion,  and  neither  to  be  congenial 
with  man.  Yet  of  the  two,  fraud  is  the  most  detest- 
able. But  of  all  forms  of  injustice,  none  is  more 
heinous  than  that  of  the  men  who,  while  they  prac- 
tise fraud  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability,  do  it  in 
such  a  way  that  they  appear  to  be  good  men. 
Enough  has  been  said  about  justice. 

14.  In  the  next  place,  as  was  proposed,  let  us 
speak  of  beneficence  and  liberality,  than  which, 
indeed,  nothing  is  more  in  harmony  with  human 
nature ;  yet  at  many  points  it  demands  circumspec- 
tion. In  the  first  place,  care  must  be  taken  lest 
our  kindness  be  of  disadvantage  to  those  whom 
we  seem  to  benefit,  or  to  others ;  in  the  next  place, 
lest  our  generosity  exceed  our  means ;  still  further, 
that  our  benefactions  be  apportioned  to  the  merit 
of  our  beneficiaries,  —  a  fundamental  principle  of 
justice  to  which  reference  should  be  had  in  what- 
ever we  do  for  others.  Now,  those  who  bestow  on 
any  person  what  is  likely  to  be  of  disadvantage  to 

1  The  Stoics  deduced  the  obligation  to  treat  slaves  humanely 
from  their  doctrine  of  human  equality,  and  the  indifference  of 
outward  conditions  to  the  truly  philosophic  mind.  Seneca  goes 
in  this  direction  to  as  great  length  as  that  of  modern  anti-slavery 
reformers.     Cicero  was  an  eminently  humane  master. 


30  Cicero  de  UJiciis. 

him  to  whom  they  seem  to  be  kind,  are  to  be 
regarded  not  as  beneficent  and  liberal,  but  as  harm- 
ful flatterers ;  and  those  who  injure  some  that  they 
may  be  generous  to  others,  are  as  much  in  the 
wrong  as  if  they  directly  converted  what  belongs 
to  others  into  their  own  property.  Yet  there  are 
many,  especially  those  greedy  for  show  and  fame, 
who  take  from  some  what  they  mean  to  lavish  on 
others,  and  these  persons  think  that  they  shall  seem 
beneficent  toward  their  friends  if  they  enrich  them, 
no  matter  how.  But  this  is  so  remote  from  duty, 
that  nothing  can  be  more  contrary  to  duty.  We 
must,  then,  take  care  that  in  our  generosity,  while 
we  do  good  to  our  friends,  we  injure  no  one.  There- 
fore the  transfer  of  property  by  Lucius  Sulla  and 
Caius  Caesar  ^  from  its  rightful  owners  to  those  to 
whom  it  did  not  belong  ought  not  to  be  deemed 
generous ;  for  nothing  is  generous  that  is  not  at  the 
same  time  just.  The  second  caution  is  that  our 
generosity  should  not  exceed  our  means ;  for  those 
who  want  to  be  more  generous  than  their  property 
authorizes  them  to  be,  in  the  first  place  are  blame- 
worthy because  they  are  unjust  toward  their  near- 
est kindred,  giving  to  strangers  what  ought  to  be 
employed  for  the  needs  of  their  own  families  or 

*  Reference  is  here  made  to  the  vast  amount  of  property 
confiscated  by  Sulla  from  the  victims  of  his  proscription,  and 
bestowed  with  lavish  prodigality  on  his  partisans,  and  to  the  rich 
8|)oil8  of  the  provinces  which  Caesar  largely  employed  to  purchase 
and  i-eward  adherents,  and  to  win  the  popular  favor. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  31 

bequeathed  for  their  future  use.  There  is,  too, 
connected  with  generosity  of  this  type,  in  almost 
every  instance,  a  disposition  to  seize  and  appropriate 
wrongfully  the  property  of  other  men,  in  order  to 
furnish  means  for  prodigal  giving.  We  can  see, 
also,  that  a  large  number  of  persons,  less  from  a 
liberal  nature  than  for  the  reputation  of  generosity, 
do  many  things  that  evidently  proceed  from  osten- 
tation rather  than  from  good  will.  It  was  said,  in 
the  third  place,  that  in  beneficence  regard  should 
be  had  to  merit,  in  which  matter  we  should  take 
into  consideration  the  character  of  the  candidate  for 
our  favor,  his  disposition  toward  us,  the  degree  of 
his  familiarity  and  intimacy  with  us,  and  the  good 
offices  which  he  may  have  previously  rendered  for 
our  benefit.  That  all  these  reasons  for  our  kindness 
should  be  combined,  is  desirable ;  if  some  of  them 
are  wanting,  preponderant  weight  must  be  given  to 
the  more  numerous  and  more  important  reasons. 

15.  But  since  we  pass  our  lives,  not  among  per- 
fect and  faultlessly  wise  men,^  but  among  those 
in  whom  it  is  well  if  there  be  found  the  semblance 
of  virtue,  it  ought,  as  I  think,  to  be  our  purpose  to 
leave  none  unbefriended  in  whom  there  is  any  trace 
of  virtue ;  but  at  the  same  time  those  have  the 
highest  claim  to  our  kind  offices  who  are  most 
richly  endowed  with  the  gentler  virtues,  moderation, 
self-control,  and  this   very  justice  about   which  I 

1  The  Stoics  maintained  that  the  truly  wise  man  lived  only  in 
theory,  but  had  had  no  actual  being  iu  this  world. 


32  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

have  said  so  much.  For  in  a  man  not  perfect  or 
wise,  a  bold  and  ambitious  mind  is  generally  too  im- 
petuous ;  while  the  virtues  that  I  have  just  named 
seem  to  be  more  in  accordance  with  the  character 
of  a  truly  good  man.  Thus  far  I  have  spoken  only 
of  the  character  of  those  to  whom  our  kind  of&ces 
are  to  be  rendered.  In  the  next  place,  as  to  the 
good  will  borne  to  us,  our  first  duty  is  to  bestow 
the  most  on  those  who  hold  us  in  the  dearest 
regard.  We  ought,  however,  to  judge  of  their  good 
will  not,  as  young  people  often  do,  by  ardent 
expressions  of  love,  but  rather  by  the  firmness  and 
constancy  of  their  attachment.  But  if  there  are 
obligations  on  our  part,  so  that  kindness  is  not  to 
begin  with  us,  but  to  be  returned  by  us,  there  is  all 
the  greater  responsibility  laid  upon  us ;  for  there  is 
no  more  essential  duty  than  that  of  returning  kind- 
ness received.  If  Hesiod  bids  us  to  restore  what 
we  have  borrowed  for  use  in  a  greater  measure,  if 
we  can,  what  ought  we  to  do  when  appealed  to  by 
unsolicited  beneficence  ?  Ought  we  not  to  imitate 
fertile  fields,  which  bring  forth  much  more  than  they 
received  ?  If  we  do  not  hesitate  to  confer  favors 
on  those  who,  we  hope,  will  be  of  service  to  us, 
what  ought  we  to  be  toward  those  who  have  already 
done  us  service  ?  For  while  there  are  two  kinds  of 
generosity,  one  that  of  bestowing,  the  other  that 
of  returning  good  offices,  —  whether  we  bestow  or 
not,  it  is  for  us  to  choose ;  but  to  omit  the  return- 
ing of  kindness  is  impossible  for  a  good  man,  if  he 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  33 

can  do  so  without  wronging  any  one.  But  there  is 
room  for  discrimination  as  to  the  benefits  received  ; 
nor  can  it  be  denied  that  the  greater  the  benefit, 
the  greater  is  the  obligation.  In  this  matter  the 
first  thing  to  be  considered  is,  with  what  degree 
of  earnestness,  zeal,  and  true  benevolence  one  has 
shown  us  kindness.  For  many  bestow  benefits  at 
haphazard,  without  judgment  or  method,  or  roused 
to  action  by  some  sudden  impulse  of  mind,  as  if  by 
a  blast  of  wind ;  and  their  kindnesses  are  not  to  be 
esteemed  so  great  as  those  which  are  conferred  with 
judgment,  deliberately  and  continuously.  But  alike 
in  bestowing  benefit  and  in  returning  kindness, 
other  things  being  equal,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree 
incumbent  upon  us  to  do  the  most  for  those  who 
need  the  most.  The  contrary  is  the  common  habit. 
Him  from  whom  men  hope  the  most,  even  if  he  has 
no  need,  they  are  the  most  ready  to  serve. 

16.  Still  further,  human  society  and  fellowship 
will  be  best  maintained,  if  where  there  is  the  most 
intimate  relation,  the  greatest  amount  of  kindness 
be  bestowed.  Here  it  may  be  well  to  trace  back 
the  social  relations  of  men  to  their  principles  in 
nature.  The  first  of  these  principles  is  that  which 
is  seen  in  the  social  union  of  the  entire  race  of  man. 
Its  bond  is  reason  as  expressed  in  language,^  which 
by  teaching,  learning,  imparting,  discussing,  decid- 
ing, conciliates  mutual  regard,  and  unites  men  by 

1  In  the  Latin,  ratio  et  oratio,  —  a  verbal  assonance  ■which  our 
language  affords  us  no  means  of  translating. 

3 


34  Cicero  de  OJicils. 

a  certain  natural  fellowship ;  nor  in  any  respect  are 
we  farther  removed  from  the  nature  of  beasts,  in 
which,  we  often  say,  there  is  courage,  as  in  the 
horse  and  the  lion,  but  not  justice,  equity,  goodness, 
inasmuch  as  they  have  neither  reason  nor  language. 
Indeed,  it  is  through  this  society,  so  broadly  open 
to  men  with  one  another,  to  all  with  all,  that  com- 
mon possession  is  to  be  maintained  as  to  whatever 
nature  has  produced  for  the  common  use  of  men; 
so  that  while  those  things  that  are  specially  desig- 
nated by  the  statutes  and  the  civil  law  are  held 
as  thus  decreed,  according  to  these  very  laws  other 
things  may  be  regarded  in  the  sense  of  the  Greek 
proverb,  "All  things  are  common  among  friends." 
Indeed,  all  those  things  seem  to  be  common  among 
men,  which  are  of  the  kind  designated  by  Ennius 
in  a  single  example,  but  comprehending  many 
others :  — 

"  Who  kindly  shows  a  wanderer  his  way, 
Lights,  as  it. were,  a  torch  from  his  own  torch,  — 
In  kindling  others'  light,  no  less  he  shines." 

This  one  instance  suffices  to  illustrate  the  rule,  that 
whatever  one  can  give  without  suffering  detriment 
should  be  given  even  to  an  entire  stranger.  Thus 
among  common  obligations  we  may  reckon,  to  pro- 
hibit no  one  from  drinking  at  a  stream  of  running 
water ;  to  permit  any  one  who  wishes  to  light  fire 
from  fire ;  to  give  faithful  advice  to  one  who  is  in 
doubt,  —  which  things  are  useful  to  the  receiver,  and 


Cicero  de  OJlciis.  35 

do  no  harm  to  the  giver.  But  since  the  resources ! 
of  individuals  are  small,  while  the  multitude  of 
those  who  need  them  is  unbounded,  this  indis- 
criminate  giving  should  have  the  limit  suggested 
by  Enuius,  "No  less  he  shines,"  so  that  we  may- 
have  the  means  of  generosity  to  those  peculiarly 
our  own. 

17.  But  there  are  several  degrees  of  relationship 
among  men.  To  take  our  departure  from  the  tie 
of  common  humanity,  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
there  is  a  nearer  relation  of  race,  nation,  and  lan- 
guage, which  brings  men  into  very  close  community 
of  feeling.  It  is  a  still  more  intimate  bond  to 
belong  to  the  same  city;  for  the  inhabitants  of 
a  city  have  in  common  among  themselves  forum, 
temples,  public  walks,  streets,  laws,  rights,  courts, 
modes  and  places  of  voting,  beside  companionships 
and  intimacies,  engagements  and  contracts,  of  many 
with  many.  Closer  still  is  the  tie  of  kindred ;  for 
by  this  from  the  vast  society  of  the  human  race 
one  is  shut  up  into  a  small  and  narrow  circle. 
Indeed,  since  the  desire  of  producing  offspring  is 
common  by  nature  to  all  living  creatures,  the  near- 
est association  consists  in  the  union  of  the  sexes ;  ^ 
the  next,  in  the  relation  with  children ;  then,  that 
of  a  common  home  and  a  community  of  such  goods 
as  appertain  to  the  home.     Then  the  home  is  the 

1  Latin,  conjugium,  which  is  often  employed  to  denote  mar- 
riage without  religious  ceremonies,  and  not  necessarily  permanent, 
and  is  used  equally  as  to  men  and  the  lower  animals. 


36  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

germ  of  the  city,  and,  so  to  speak,  the  nursery  of 
the  state.  The  union  of  brothers  comes  next  in 
order,  then  that  of  cousins  less  or  more  remote, 
who,  when  one  house  can  no  longer  hold  them  all, 
emigrate  to  other  houses  as  if  to  colonies.  Then 
follow  marriages  ^  and  affinities  by  marriage,  thus  in- 
creasing the  number  of  kindred.  From  this  propa- 
gation and  fresh  growth  of  successive  generations 
states  have  their  beginning.  But  the  union  of 
blood,  especially,  binds  men  in  mutual  kindness 
and  affection ;  for  it  is  a  great  thing  to  have  the 
same  statues  of  ancestors,  the  same  rites  of  domestic 
worship,  the  same  sepulchres.  But  of  all  associa- 
tions none  is  more  excellent,  none  more  enduring, 
than  when  good  men,  of  like  character,  are  united 
in  intimacy.  For  the  moral  rectitude  of  which 
I  have  so  often  spoken,  even  if  we  see  it  in  a 
stranger,  yet  moves  us,  and  calls  out  our  friendship 
for  him  in  whom  it  dwells.  Moreover,  while  every 
virtue  attracts  us  to  itself,  and  makes  us  love  those 
in  whom  it  seems  to  exist,  this  is  emphatically  true 
of  justice  and  generosity.  At  the  same  time,  noth- 
ing is  more  lovable,  and  nothing  brings  men  into 
more  intimate  relations,  than  the  common  possession 
of  these  moral  excellences;  for  those  who  have 
the  same  virtuous  desires  and  purposes  love  one  an- 
other as  they  love  themselves,  and  they  realize  what 
Pythagoras  would  have  in  friendship,  the  unifying 

*  Latin,   eomnvMa,   which  denotes  legal  marriages,   deemed 
sacred  and  permanent  as  compared  with  conjugia. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  37 

of  plurality.  That  also  is  an  intimate  fellowship 
which  is  created  by  benefits  mutually  bestowed  and 
received,  which,  while  they  give  pleasure  on  both 
sides,  produce  a  lasting  attachment  between  those 
who  thus  live  in  reciprocal  good  offices.  But  when 
you  survey  with  reason  and  judgment  the  entire  field 
of  human  society,  of  all  associations  none  is  closer, 
none  dearer,  than  that  which  unites  each  of  us  with 
our  country.  Parents  are  dear,  children  are  dear, 
so  are  kindred  and  friends ;  but  the  country  alone 
takes  into  her  embrace  all  our  loves  for  all,  in 
whose  behalf  what  good  man  would  hesitate  to 
encounter  death,  if  he  might  thus  do  her  service  ? 
The  more  detestable  is  the  savageness  of  those  who 
by  every  form  of  guilt  have  inflicted  grievous 
wounds  on  their  country,  and  are  and  have  been 
employed  in  her  utter  subversion.  Now,  if  you 
make  an  estimate  and  comparison^  of  the  degree 
of  service  to  be  rendered  in  each  relation,  the  first 
place  must  be  given  to  our  country  and  our  parents, 
bound  as  we  are  to  them  by  paramount  benefits; 
next  come  our  children,  and  the  entire  family  which 
looks  to  us  alone,  nor  in  stress  of  need  can  have 
any  other  refuge  ;  then,  afterward,  the  kindred  with 
whom  we  are  on  pleasant  terms,  and  with  whom, 
for  the  most  part,  we  are  in  the  same  condition  of 

1  Latin,  contcntio  et  comparatio,  literally,  a  stretching  of  two 
or  more  objects  side  by  side,  and  measuring  their  equality  or  non- 
eqnality  in  length,  —  a  figure  which  can  hardly  be  represented  in 
translation. 


38  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

life.  For  the  reasons  indicated  we  owe  chiefly  to 
these  that  I  have  named  the  necessary  protection  of 
daily  life ;  but  companionship,  conviviality,  counsel, 
conversation,  advice,  consolation,  sometimes  reproof 
also,  have  their  most  fruitful  soil  in  friendship,  and 
that  is  the  most  pleasant  friendship  which  is  ce- 
mented by  resemblance  in  character. 

18.  In  discharging  aU  these  duties,  we  ought  to 
consider  what  is  most  needful  for  each  person,  and 
what  each  person  either  can  or  cannot  obtain  with- 
out our  aid.  Thus  the  degrees  of  relationship  will 
not  correspond  with  those  of  the  occasions  for  our 
kind  offices ;  and  there  are  duties  which  we  owe  to 
some  rather  than  to  others,  on  grounds  independent 
of  their  connection  with  us.  Thus  you  would  help 
a  neighbor  rather  than  a  brother  or  an  intimate 
friend  in  harvesting  his  crops ;  while  in  a  case  in 
court  you  would  appear  as  an  advocate  for  your 
kinsman  or  friend  rather  than  for  your  neighbor. 
I  These  and  similar  points  are  to  be  carefully  con- 
sidered in  every  department  of  duty,  and  we  should 
practise  and  exercise  ourselves  so  that  we  may  be 
good  calculators  of  duty,  and  by  adding  and  sub- 
tracting may  ascertain  the  remainder,  and  thus 
know  how  much  is  due  to  each  person.  Indeed,  as 
neither  physicians,  nor  commanders,  nor  orators, 
though  they  understand  the  rules  of  their  art,  can 
accomplish  anything  worthy  of  high  commendation 
without  practice  and  exercise ;  so,  though  the  pre- 
'  cepts  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  duty  be  delivered, 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  39 

as  I  am  delivering  them  now,  the  very  greatness  of 
the  work  which  they  prescribe  demands  practice 
and  exercise.  I  have  now  shown,  with  nearly 
sufficient  fulness  of  detail,  how  the  right,  on  which 
duty  depends,  is  derived  from  the  constituent  ele- 
ments of  human  society. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  of  the  four  sources  from 
which  right  and  duty  flow,  the  greatest  admiration ; 
attends  that  consisting  in  a  large  and  lofty  mind' 
which  looks  down  on  human  fortunes.  Thus,  when 
reproach  is  intended,  nothing  occurs  more  readily 
than  utterances  like  this,  — 

"Ye,  youths,  indeed  show  but  a  woman's  soul; 
That  heroine,  a  man's  ;  " — 

or  this,  — 

"  Give,  SalmaciSji  spoils  without  sweat  and  blood."  ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  in  panegyrics,  our  speech  rolls 
on  with  a  fuller  flow  when  we  praise  deeds  that 
have  been  wrought  with  a  large  mind,  bravely  and 
grandly.  Hence  the  field  for  eloquent  discourse 
about  Marathon,  Salamis,  Plataea,  Thermopylae, 
Leuctrae ;  hence  the  fame  of  our  own  fellow-coun- 

1  Salmacis  was  the  name  of  a  fountain  in  Caria,  so  called  from 
a  not  very  virtuous  nymph  of  that  name.  The  waters  of  the 
fountain  were  said  to  enervate  those  who  bathed  in  it,  and  it  was 
fabled  to  have  been  the  resort  of  eager  pleasure-seekers  of  both 
sexes.  Trophies  were,  of  course,  won  there  by  wanton  dalliance, 
and  not  by  deeds  of  prowess. 

2  Some  commentators  say  that  these  scraps  of  verse  are  from 
Ennius  ;  others  say  that  it  is  not  known  whence  they  coma 
The  latter  are  probably  in  the  light. 


40  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

trymen,  Codes,  the  Decii,  Cneius  and  Publius 
Scipio ;  hence  the  glory  of  Marcus  Marcellus,  and 
of  others  more  than  can  be  numbered;  and  the 
Eoman  people,  as  a  nation,  excels  other  nations 
chiefly  in  this  very  greatness  of  soul.  In  particu- 
lar, the  prevailing  love  for  glory  in  war  is  mani- 
fested in  the  almost  uniform  clothing  of  statues  in 
military  attire.^ 

19.  But  this  loftiness  of  spirit,  manifested  in 
peril  and  in  toil,  if  devoid  of  justice,  and  contending 
for  selfish  ends,  not  for  the  public  good,  is  to  be 
condemned ;  for  not  only  does  it  not  appertain  to 
virtue,  —  it  belongs  rather  to  a  savageness  that 
spurns  all  human  feeling,^  Therefore  courage  is 
well  defined  by  the  Stoics  as  the  virtue  that  con- 
tends for  the  right.  No  one,  then,  who  has  sought 
a  reputation  for  courage  by  treachery  and  fraud, 
has  won  the  fame  he  sought.  Nothing  that  is 
devoid  of  justice  can  be  honorable.  It  was  well 
said  by  Plato :  "  Not  only  is  knowledge,  when 
divorced  from  justice,  to  be  termed  subtlety  rather 
than  wisdom ;  but  also  the  soul  prompt  to  encounter 
danger,  if  moved  thereto  by  self-interest,  and  not 
by  the  common  good,  should  have  the  reputation 

1  There  were  hardly  any  distinguished  Romans  that  had  not 
held  some  military  command,  so  that  even  for  those  best  known 
as  civilians  a  military  costume  might  not  have  been  inappropriate. 

*  Latin,  immanitatis  omnem  humanitatem  repellentis,  —  one 
of  those  untranslatable  assonances  in  which  Cicero  delights,  aud 
which  contribute  largely  to  the  euphony  of  his  diction. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  41 

of  audacity  rather  thau  of  courage."  Therefore  I 
would  have  brave  and  high-spirited  men  also  good 
and  simple,  friends  of  truth,  remote  from  guile,  — 
traits  of  character  which  belong  to  the  very  heart 
of  justice.  But  the  mischief  is,  that  in  this  exalta- 
tion and  largeness  of  soul  obstinacy  and  an  exces- 
sive lust  of  power  very  easily  have  birth.  For 
as,  according  to  Plato,  the  entire  character  of  the 
Lacedaemonians  was  set  on  fire  by  the  desire  for 
victory,  so  now,  in  proportion  as  one  surpasses 
others  in  grandeur  of  soul,  he  is  ambitious  to  hold 
the  foremost  place  among  those  in  power,  or  rather, 
to  rule  alone.  Now  it  is  hard,  when  you  covet 
pre-eminence,  to  maintain  the  equity  which  is  the 
most  essential  property  of  justice.  Hence  it  is 
that  such  men  suffer  themselves  to  be  overcome 
neither  in  debate  nor  by  any  legal  or  constitutional 
hindrance,  and  in  the  state  they,  for  the  most  part, 
employ  bribery  and  intrigue  that  they  may  acquire 
the  greatest  influence  possible,  and  may  rise  by  force,  | 
rather  than  maintain  equality  with  their  fellow- 
citizens  by  justice.  But  the  greater  the  difficulty, 
the  greater  the  glory.  Nor  is  there  any  occasion 
that  ought  to  be  devoid  of  justice.  Therefore  not 
those  who  inflict,  but  those  who  repel,. wrong  ought 
to  be  deemed  brave  and  magnanimous.  A  soul 
truly  and  wisely  great  regards  the  right  to  which 
the  nature  of  man  aspires  as  consisting  in  deeds, 
not  in  fame;  it  chooses  to  be  chief  rather  than 
to  seem  so.     On  the  other  hand,  he  who  depends 


42  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

on  the  waywardness  of  the  undiscerning  multitude 
does  not  deserve  to  be  reckoned  among  great  men. 
But  in  proportion  to  a  man's  towering  ambition, 
he  is  easily  urged  by  the  greed  of  fame  to  deeds 
averse  from  justice.  His  is  a  slippery  standing- 
ground;^  for  we  seldom  find  a  man,  who,  for  labors 
undertaken  and  dangers  encountered,  does  not  de- 
mand fame  as  the  price  of  his  exploits. 

20.  A  brave  and  great  soul  is,  in  fine,  chiefly 
characterized  by  two  things.  One  of  these  is  the 
contempt  of  outward  circumstances  in  the  per- 
suasion that  a  man  ought  not  to  admire  or  wish 
or  seek  aught  that  is  not  right  and  becoming,  or 
to  yield  to  human  influence,  or  to  passion,  or  to 
calamity.  The  other  is  that,  with  this  disposition 
of  mind,  one  should  undertake  the  conduct  of 
affairs  great,  indeed,  and,  especially,  beneficial,  but 
at  the  same  time  arduous  in  the  highest  degree, 
demanding  severe  toil,  and  fraught  with  peril 
not  only  of  the  means  of  comfortable  living,  but 
of  life  itself.  Of  these  two  things,  all  the  lustre 
and  renown,  and  the  utility  too,  belong  to  the 
latter :  but  their  cause  and  the  habit  of  mind  that 
makes  men  great  lie  in  the  former;  for  in  this  is 
inherent  that  which  renders  souls  truly  great,  and 
lifts  them  above  the  vicissitudes  of  human  fortune. 
Moreover,  this  first  constituent  of  greatness  consists 
in  two  things,  in  accounting  the  right  alone  as 
good,  and  in  freedom  from  all  disturbing  passions : 

*  On  which  it  is  hard  to  maintain  one's  moral  equipoise. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  43 

for  to  hold  in  light  esteem,  and  on  fixed  and  firm 
principles  to  despise,  objects  which  to  most  persons 
seem  excellent  and  splendid,  is  the  token  of  a 
brave  and  great  soul ;  and  to  bear  those  reputedly 
bitter  experiences  which  are  so  many  and  various 
in  human  life  and  fortunes,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
depart  in  no  wise  from  the  deportment  that  is 
natural  to  you,  in  no  wise  from  the  dignity  befitting 
a  wise  man,  is  the  index  of  a  strong  mind  and  of 
great  steadfastness  of  character.  But  it  is  incon- 
gruous for  one  who  is  not  broken  down  by  fear 
to  be  broken  down  by  the  love  of  gain,  or  for  him 
who  has  shown  himself  unconquered  by  labor,  to 
be  conquered  by  sensuality.  These  failures  must  be 
provided  against,  and  the  desire  for  money  must 
especially  be  shunned.  For  nothing  shows  so  nar- 
row and  small  a  mind  as  the  love  of  riches ;  noth- 
ing is  more  honorable  and  magnificent  than  to 
despise  money  if  you  have  it  not,  —  if  you  have 
it,  to  expend  it  for  purposes  of  beneficence  and 
generosity.  The  greed  of  fame,  also,  as  I  have 
already  said,  must  be  shunned  ;  for  it  deprives  one 
of  liberty,  which  every  high-minded  man  will  strive 
to  the  utmost  to  maintain.  Indeed,  posts  of  com- 
mand^ ought  not  to  be  eagerly  sought,  nay,  they 
should  sometimes  rather  be  refused,  sometimes  re- 
signed. One  should  also  be  free  from  all  disturb- 
ing emotions,  not  only  from  desire  and  fear,  but 

1  Imperia,  by  which  Cicero,  oftener  than  not,  denotes  high 
military  office. 


44  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

equally  from  solicitude,  and  sensuality,  and  anger, 
that  there  may  be  serenity  of  mind,  and  that  free- 
dom from  care  which  brings  with  it  both  evenness 
of  temper  and  dignity  of  character.     But  there  are 
and  have  been  many  who,  in  quest  of  the  serenity 
of  which  I   am   speaking,   have   withdrawn   from 
public  affairs,  and  taken  refuge  in  a  life  of  leisure. 
Among  these  are  the  most  eminent  philosophers, 
including  those  of  the  very  first  rank,  and   also 
some  stern  and  grave  men,  who  could  not  endure 
I  the  conduct  either  of  the  people  or  of  their  rulers. 
•  Some,  too,  have  taken  up  their  abode  in  the  coun- 
try, engrossed  in  the  care  of  their  own  property, 
i  Their  design  is  the  same  as  that  of  kings,  to  lack 
I  nothing,  to  obey  no  one,  to  enjoy  liberty,  the  es- 
!  sence  of  which  is  to  live  as  one  pleases. 

21.  "While  the  purpose  of  living  as  one  pleases 

is  common  to  those  greedy  of  power  and  to  the 

i  men  of  leisure  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  the  former 

I  think  that  they  can  realize  it  if  they  have  large 

resources  ;  the  latter,  if  they  are  content  with  what 

I  they  have,  and  with  little.     Nor  is  either  opinion 

j  to  be  despised.     But  the  life  of  the  men  of  leisure 

i  is  easier,  and  safer,  and  less  liable  to  give  trouble 

or  annoyance  to  others ;  while  that  of  those  who 

have  fitted  themselves  for  the  public  service  and  for 

the  management  of  large  affairs,  is  more  fruitful  of 

benefit  to  mankind,  and  more  conducive  to  their  own 

eminence  and  renown.     All  things  considered,  we 

ought,  perhaps,  to  excuse  from  bearing  part  in  public 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  45 

affairs   those  who   devote   themselves   to   learning  i 
with  superior  ability,  and  those  who,  from  impaired  i 
health,  or  for  some  sufficiently  weighty  reason,  have  j 
sought  retirement,  abandoning  to  others  the  power  ' 
and  the  praise  of  civic  service.      But  as  for  those  ' 
who  have  no  such  reason,  yet  say  that  they  despise  j 
what  most  persons   admire,   places   of   trust  and  | 
honor  in  the  military  or  civil  service,^  this,  I  think,  j 
is  to  be  reckoned  to  their  discredit,  not  to  their  » 
praise.     They,  indeed,  deserve  approval  for  despis- 
ing fame  and  thinking  it  of  no  account.     But  they 
seem   to   dread   not  only  toil  and  trouble,  but  a 
certain  imagined  shame  and  disgrace  from  the  dis- 
appointments and   repulses  which  they  must  en- 
counter.     For    there    are   those   who   in   opposite 
circumstances  fail  to  act  consistently,  —  who  have 
the  utmost  contempt  for  pleasure,  yet  are  unmanned 
by  pain,  —  who  scorn  fame,  yet  are  broken  down 
by  unpopularity ;  and  these  are,  indeed,  manifest 
incongruities   in   a    man's    character.      But    those  I 
whom  nature  has  endowed  with  qualities  that  fit ' 
them  for  the  management  of  public  affairs  ought,  '\ 
without  needless  delay,  to  become  candidates  for 
office  and  to  take  the  interests  of  the  state  in  charge; 
for  only  thus  can  the  state  be  well  governed,  and  i 
only  thus  can  commanding  power  of  mind  be  made 
manifest.     At  the  same  time,  for  those  who  under-  I 
take   public   trusts,    perhaps   even   more   than  for 
philosophers,  there  is  need  of  elevation  of  mind,  i 

1  Latin,  imperia  et  magistratus. 


46  Cicero  de  UJJiciis. 

and  contempt  of  the  vicissitudes  of  human  fortune, 
and  that  serene  and  unruffled  spirit  of  which  I 
often  speak,  in  order  that  they  may  be  free  from 
solicitude,  and  may  lead  dignified  and  self-consist- 
ent lives.  This  is  easier  for  philosophers,  inasmuch 
as  their  condition  in  life  is  less  open  to  the  assaults 
of  fortune,  their  wants  are  fewer,  and  in  case  of 
adverse  events  they  encounter  a  less  heavy  fall. 
,  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  hold  public  trusts  are 
obviously  liable  to  stronger  mental  excitement,  and 
are  more  heavily  burdened  with  care  than  those 
who  live  in  retirement ;  and  they  should  therefore 
bring  to  their  duty  a  corresponding  strength  of 
mind,  and  independence  of  the  ordinary  causes 
of  vexation.  But  let  him  who  meditates  entering 
on  any  important  undertaking,  carefully  consider, 
not  only  whether  the  undertaking  is  right,  but  also 
whether  he  has  the  ability  to  carry  it  through ;  and 
here  he  must  beware,  on  the  one  hand,  lest  he  too 
readily  despair  of  success  from  mere  want  of  spirit, 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  lest  he  be  over-confident 
from  excessive  eagerness.  In  fine,  in  all  transac- 
tions, before  you  enter  upon  them,  you  should 
make  diligent  preparation. 

22.  Moreover,  since  military  achievements  are 
very  commonly  regarded  as  outranking  civil  ser- 
vice, this  opinion  needs  to  be  refuted;  for  wars 
have  often  been  encouraged  from  the  desire  of 
fame,  especially  by  men  of  superior  intellect  and 
genius,  when  they  have  the  requisite  ability  for  the 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  47 

service  of  arms,  and  are  ambitious  of  the  places  of 
command  which  it  offers.  Yet  if  we  will  only  look 
at  facts,  there  have  been  many  civic  transactions 
that  have  surpassed  feats  of  arms  in  importance 
and  in  renown.^  Thus,  although  Themistocles  be 
rightly  held  in  honor,  and  his  name  be  more  illus- 
trious than  that  of  Solon,  and  Salamis  be  cited  as 
witness  of  a  most  splendid  victory  which  may  have 
a  higher  place  in  the  popular  esteem  than  Solon's  | 
establishing  the  Areopagus,^  yet  this  last  must  bej 
regarded  as  no  less  glorious  than  the  victory.  Fori 
this  was  once  of  benefit;  that  will  always  be  ofj 
benefit  to  tlie  state,  as  preserving  inviolate  the  laws 
of  the  Athenians  and  the  institutions  of  their  ances-i 
tors.  And  Themistocles  could  have  named  no  par- 
ticular in  which  he  could  have  given  help  to  the 
Areopagus ;  while  the  Areopagus  rendered  substan- 
tial aid^  to  Themistocles,  the  war  having  been 
conducted  by  the  counsel  of  that  same  Senate  estab- 
lished by  Solon.     The  like  may  be  said  of  Pausa- 

1  "  Peace  bath  her  victories 

No  less  renowned  than  war." 

Milton,  Sonnet  xvi. 

'^  Solon  did  not  establish  the  Areopagus,  which  was  of  even 
prehistoric  origin  ;  but  before  his  time  it  was  merely  a  criminal 
court,  while  he  gave  it  censorial  jurisdiction,  advisory  authority 
in  public  affairs,  and,  in  fine,  functions  that  rendered  it  a  council 
of  state,  and  a  strongly  conservative  force  against  else  unchecked 
democracy. 

3  The  Areopagus,  in  a  time  of  great  dearth,  furnished  funds 
for  the  payment  of  the  seamen  who  were  going  to  fight  at 
Salamis. 


48  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

nias^  and  Lysander.^  Although  the  common  idea 
is  that  the  Lacedaemonian  empire  owed  its  enlarge- 
ment to  their  prowess,  yet  their  achievements  bear 
no  comparison  with  the  laws  and  discipline  of 
Lycurgus.  For  was  it  not  these  very  institutions 
that  made  their  armies  both  more  obedient  and 
more  courageous  ?  Nor,  indeed,  when  I  was  a  boy, 
did  I  regard  Marcus  Scaurus  ^  as  inferior  to  Caius 
Marius ;  nor,  when  I  was  in  public  life,  did  I  think 
Quintus    Catulus*    inferior    to    Cneius    Pompeius. 

"  Valor  abroad  is  naught,  unless  at  home  be  wisdom."  * 

Nor  yet  did  Africanus,  of  rare  worth  both  as  a  man 
and  as  a  commander,  do  greater  service  to  the 
republic  in  exterminating  Numantia,  than  at  the 
same  time  did  Publius  Nasica,  a  private  citizen, 
in  killing  Tiberius  Gracchus.     This  last   transac- 

1  Pausanias  overthrew  the  Persian  general,  Mardonius,  in  the 
battle  of  Plataea. 

2  Lysander  took  Athens,  and  destroyed  the  Long  Walls. 

'  Marcus  Aemilius  Scaurus  was  a  strong  conservative  and  a 
zealous  supporter  of  the  aristocratic  party.  His  deportment,  too, 
was  remarkable  for  its  gravity  and  its  general  respectability.  He 
may  have  been  a  better  man  than  Marius;  but  he  was  charged 
with  receiving  a  heavy  bribe  from  Jugurtha  for  securing  a  peace 
on  terms  favorable  to  the  king,  and  he  saved  himself  from  penal 
accountability  only  by  procuring  his  own  appointment  as  one  of 
the  judges  for  the  trial  of  his  accomplices. 

*  Quintus  Catulus  suppoi"ted  Cicero  at  the  time  of  the  Cati- 
linian  conspiracy,  and  was  the  first  in  the  Senate  to  hail  him  as 
Father  of  the  Country  {pater  patriae). 

5  A  verse,  quoted  probably  from  some  lost  comedy,  the  meas- 
ure being  one  employed  by  the  comic  poets. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  49 

tion,  indeed,  is  not  wholly  of  a  civil  character, — 
as  it  was  performed  by  force  and  arms,  it  borders 
on  the  military ;  yet  it  was  effected  by  civic  policy 
without  military  array.  That  verse  of  mine,  against  i 
which,  as  I  hear,  unprincipled  and  envious  men  are 
wont  to  rail,  — 

"  Let  arms  yield  to  the  robe,  the  laurel  to  the  tongue,"  ^ 

is  by  no  means  devoid  of  excellence.     Not  to  men- 
tion others,  when  I  was  at  the  helm  of  the  republic, 
did  not  arms  yield  to  the  gown?     For  there  was, 
never  in  the  republic  greater  danger,  and  never  aj 
more  profound  peace.     Thus  by  my  counsels  and| 
my  assiduity  their  very  weapons  fell  speedily  fromi 
the  hands  of  the  most  audacious  citizens.     What' 
equally  great  achievement  was  ever  performed  in 
war  ?     What  triumph  is  to  be  compared  with  it  ?  I 
I  may  take  the  liberty  of  boasting  to  you,  my  son 
Marcus,  to  whom  belong  both  the  heritage  of  this  j 
fame   and  the  imitation   of  my  deeds.     Forsooth, 
Cneius  Pompeius,  a  man  rich  in  military  renown, 
in  the  hearing  of  many  did  me  the  honor  of  saying ! 
that   he  would  in   vain   have   obtained   his   third  i 
triumph,   unless   by  my  service   to   the   state  he ', 
would  have  had  a  place  for  the  celebration  of  his  | 
triumph.     There  are,  then,  cases  of  civic  courage  j 

*  This  verse  is  from  a  poem  of  Cicero  on  his  own  times,  and 
mainly  to  his  own  glory  as  carried  to  its  climax  in  his  suppression 
of  the  Catilinian  conspiracy.  It  was  laughed  at  for  the  patent 
self-conceit  which  it  exhibited. 

4 


50  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

not  inferior  to  those  in  war,  nay,  demanding  even  a 
larger  amount  of  labor  and  of  zeal. 

23.  Of  a  certainty,  the  virtue  which  we  demand 
of  a  lofty  and  large  mind  is  generated  by  strength 
of  mind,  not  of  body.  Yet  the  body  must  be  dis- 
ciplined, and  brought  into  a  condition  in  which  it 
can  obey  counsel  and  reason  in  following  out  affairs 
to  their  issue,  and  in  enduring  toil.  But  the  vir- 
tue which  we  demand  consists  in  mental  care 
and  thought,  in  which  those  who  preside  over 
the  state  in  the  robe  of  peace,  perform  no  less 
service  than  those  who  take  the  lead  in  war. 
Indeed,  by  the  counsel  of  the  former,  wars  have 
been  often  prevented  or  terminated,  sometimes, 
also,  begun,  as  the  third  Punic  war,  by  the  counsel 
of  Marcus  Cato,^  then  dead,  whose  authority  out- 
lived him.  Therefore  skill  in  the  settlement  of 
controversies  is  more  desirable  than  courage  in 
disputing  them  by  arms ;  but  care  must  be  taken 
lest  we  resort  to  peaceful  measures  rather  to  avoid 
fighting  than  for  the  public  good. 

But  war  should  be  undertaken  in  such  a  way 

that  it  may  seem   nothing   else   than  a  quest  of 

I  peace.     Moreover,  it  belongs  to  a  brave  and  firm 

man  not  to  be  disturbed  in  misfortune,  nor  to  be 

so  thrown  off  his  balance  as  to  be,  in  the  trite 

1  As  is  well  knowTi,  Cato  never  gave  his  vote  in  the  Senate, 
no  matter  what  the  subject,  without  repeating  the  words,  Delenda 
est  Carthago,  Carthage  must  be  destroyed.  Its  destruction  took 
place  three  years  after  his  death. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  51 

phrase,  hustled  down  from  his  position,  but  to  take 
prompt  thought  and  counsel,  and  not  to  be  betrayed 
into  unreason.  While  as  much  as  this  belongs  to  a 
great  mind,  it  is  also  the  part  of  a  man  of  tran- 
scendent ability  to  anticipate  the  future  in  thought, 
and  somewhat  beforehand  to  consider  what  is  liable 
to  happen  on  either  side,  and  what  is  to  be  done  in 
case  of  any  possible  event,  so  as  not  to  be  compelled 
at  any  time  to  say,  "  I  had  not  thought  of  this." 
Such  is  the  work  of  a  mind  large,  and  lofty,  and 
trusting  in  discretion  and  good  counsel.  But  to 
make  rash  manoeuvres  in  battle,  and  to  come  to 
close  quarters  with  the  enemy,  is  something  sav- 
age and  beastlike.  Yet  when  occasion  and  need 
demand,  there  must  be  hand-to-hand  fighting,  and 
death  is  to  be  preferred  to  slavery  or  poltroonery. 

24.  As  to  the  destruction  and  plundering  of 
conquered  cities,  care  must  be  taken  that  nothing 
be  done  precipitately,  nothing  cruelly;  and  it  is  the 
part  of  a  truly  great  man,  in  times  of  disorder,  to 
punish  the  guilty,  to  spare  the  many,  and,  whatever 
takes  place,  to  keep  rectitude  and  honor  inviolate. 
For  as  there  are  those,  as  I  have  already  said,  who 
prefer  military  to  civil  service,  so  you  may  find 
many  to  whom  perilous  and  hot-headed  counsels 
seem  more  splendid  and  imposing  than  calm  and 
deliberate  measures.  Never,  certainly,  are  we  by 
shunning  danger  to  make  ourselves  seem  tame  and 
timid ;  but  equally  are  we  to  avoid  encountering 
needless  perils,  than  which  nothing  can  be  more 


52  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

foolisli.  Therefore,  in  impending  danger,  we  should 
imitate  the  custom  of  physicians,  who  employ  mild 
treatment  for  those  but  slightly  ill,  but  are  com- 
pelled to  use  dangerous  and  doubtful  remedies  for 
severer  diseases.  Thus  it  is  the  part  of  a  madman, 
in  a  calm  sea  to  desire  a  storm  with  a  head- wind ; 
but  that  of  a  wise  man,  to  withstand  the  storm  as 
best  he  may,  especially  if  the  benefits  obtained 
by  carrying  the  matter  through  successfully  are 
greater  than  the  evil  that  may  be  incurred  in  the 
conflict.  But  public  transactions  are  perilous,  some- 
times to  those  who  undertake  them,  sometimes  to 
the  state ;  and,  again,  some  run  the  risk  of  life, 
others  of  fame,  and  of  the  good-will  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.  We  ought  to  be  more  ready  to  encounter 
danger  for  ourselves  than  for  the  state,  and  to  con- 
tend more  promptly  for  honor  and  fame  than  for 
anything  else  that  concerns  ourselves  personally. 

Yet  there  have  been  found  many  who  were  ready 
to  pour  out  not  only  their  money,  but  even  their 
blood  for  their  country,  who  would  not  make  the 
least  sacrifice  of  reputation,  even  when  the  well- 
being  of  the  state  demanded  it;  as,  for  instance, 
Callicratidas,  who,  after  having  been  at  the  head  of 
the  Lacedaemonian  forces  in  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
and  having  repeatedly  rendered  excellent  service, 
at  last  reversed  everything  by  rejecting  the  advice 
of  those  who  thought  it  best  to  remove  the  fleet 
from  the  Arginusae  and  not  to  fight  with  the 
Athenians.     He  answered  them  that  the  Lacedae- 


Cicero  de  OJldis.  53 

monians,  if  they  lost  that  fleet,  could  equip  another, 
while  he  could  not  retreat  without  disgracing  him- 
self.^ This  was,  indeed,  to  the  Lacedaemonians 
a  blow  of  moderate  severity;  that,  a  ruinous  one, 
by  which,  when  Cleombrotus,^  for  fear  of  unpopu- 
larity, fought  rashly  with  Epaminondas,  the  power 
of  the  Lacedaemonians  utterly  collapsed.  What  a 
contrast  here  to  the  advantage  of  Quintus  Maximus,^ 
of  whom  Ennius  writes  :  — 

"  One  man  by  slow  delays  restored  our  fortunes, 
Preferring  not  the  people's  praise  to  safety, 
And  thus  his  after-glory  shines  the  more." 

This  same  kind  of  error  is  also  to  be  shunned  in 
civil  affairs ;  for  there  are  those  who,  for  fear  of 
unpopularity,  dare  not  say  what  they  think,  even 
if  it  be  the  very  best  that  could  be  said. 

25.  In  fine,  let  those  who  are  to  preside  over  thei 
state  obey  two  precepts  of  Plato,  —  one,  that  they 
so  watch  for  the  well-being  of  their  fellow-citizens 
that  they  have  reference  to  it  in  whatever  they  do, 
forgetting  their  own  private  interests;  the  other, 

^  Callicratidas  himself  perished  in  the  battle. 

2  Cleombrotus  was  taunted  for  excess  of  caution,  and  was  thus 
induced  to  risk  the  battle  with  the  Thebans,  against  his  own 
judgment.  There  seems  to  have  been  as  much  hesitation  on  the 
Theban  side,  so  that,  prior  to  the  battle,  the  scales  would  prob- 
ably have  seemed  equipoised. 

'  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  who  from  his  repeatedly  aToiding 
direct  conflict  with  Hannibal  in  the  determination  to  weary  him 
out  by  delay,  acquired  the  surname  of  Cunctator,  and  has  be- 
queathed the  enduring  epithet  of  Fabian  to  a  policy  like  his  own. 


54  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

that  they  care  for  the  whole  body  politic,  and  not, 
while  they  watch  over  a  portion  of  it,  neglect  other 
portions.  For,  as  the  guardianship  of  a  minor,  so 
the  administration  of  the  state  is  to  be  conducted 
for  the  benefit,  not  of  those  to  whom  it  is  intrusted, 
but  of  those  who  are  intrusted  to  their  care.  But 
those  who  take  counsel  for  a  part  of  the  citizens, 
and  neglect  a  part,  bring  into  the  state  an  ele- 

!  ment  of  the  greatest  mischief,  and  stir  up  sedition 
and  discord,  some  siding  with  the  people,  some 
with  the  aristocracy,  and  few  being  equally  the 
friends  of  all.  From  this  cause  arose  great  dissen- 
sions among  the  Athenians,  and  in  our  republic 
it  has  led  not  only  to  seditions,  but  also  to  de- 
structive civil  wars.     Partiality  of  this  kind,  a  citi- 

I  zen  who  is  substantial  and  brave,  and  worthy  of  a 
chief  place  in  the  state,  will  shun  and  abhor,  and 
will  give  himself  wholly  up  to  the  state,  pursuing 
neither  wealth  nor  power;  and  he  will  so  watch 
over  the  entire  state  as  to  consult  the  well-being 
of  all  its  citizens.  Nor  will  he  expose  any  one  to 
hatred  or  envy  b}'-  false  accusation,  and  he  will 
in  every  respect  so  adhere  to  justice  and  right 
as  in  their  behalf  to  submit  to  any  loss  how- 
ever severe,  and  to  face  death  itseK  rather  than 
surrender  the  principles  which  I  have  indicated. 
Most  pitiful  in  every  aspect  is  the  canvassing  and 
scrambling  for  preferment,  of  which  it  is  well  said 
by  the  same  Plato,  that  those  who  strive  among 
themselves  which  shall  be  foremost  in  the  admin- 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  55 

istration  of  the  state,  act  like  sailors  who  should 
quarrel  for  a  place  at  the  helm.  The  same  writer 
exhorts  us  to  regard  as  enemies  those  who  bear 
arms  against  us,  not  those  who  desire  to  care  for 
the  interests  of  the  state  in  accordance  with  their 
own  judgment,  as  in  the  case  of  the  disagreement 
without  bitterness  between  Publius  Africanus  and 
Quintus  Metellus.i 

Nor  are  they  to  be  listened  to  who  think  that 
anger  is  to  be  cherished  toward  those  who  are 
unfriendly  to  us  on  political  grounds,  and  imagine 
that  this  betokens  a  large-minded  and  brave  man ; 
for  nothing  is  more  praiseworthy,  nothing  more 
befitting  a  great  and  eminent  man,  than  placability 
and  clemency.  Moreover,  in  free  states  and  where 
all  have  equal  rights,  there  is  a  demand  for  courtesy, 
and  for  a  soul  superior  to  petty  causes  of  vexation, 
lest  if  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  angry  with  those 
who  intrude  upon  us  inopportunely,  we  fall  into 
irritable  habits  equally  harmful  and  hateful.  Yet 
an  easy  and  accommodating  temper  is  to  be  ap- 
proved only  so  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  the 
strictness    demanded   in   public  business,  without 

1  They  were  often  on  opposite  sides  in  the  politics  of  the  city,  I 
and  sometimes  on  non-friendly,  if  not  unfriendly  terms;  but 
when  Africanus  was  found  dead  in  his  bed,  and  supposed  to  have 
been  assassinated,  Metellus  exclaimed,  "Come,  citizens,  to  the 
rescue  ;  the  walls  of  our  city  are  throvra  down  ;  "  and  he  ordered 
his  sons  to  put  their  shoulders  under  the  bier,  saying  that  they 
would  never  have  the  opportunity  to  perform  that  office  for  a 
greater  man. 


56  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

which  the  state  cannot  be  administered.  But  all 
punishment  and  correction  ought  to  be  free  from 
personal  insult,  and  should  have  reference,  not  to 
the  pleasure  of  him  who  administers  punishment 
or  reproof,  but  to  the  public  good.  Care  also  must 
be  taken  lest  the  punishment  be  greater  than  the 
fault,  and  lest  for  the  same  cause  some  be  made 
penally  responsible,  and  others  not  even  called  to 
account.  Most  of  all  is  anger  to  be  eliminated 
in  punishment ;  for  he  who  enters  on  the  ofhce  of 
punishment  in  anger  will  never  preserve  that  mean 
between  too  much  and  too  little,  of  which  the 
Peripatetics  make  so  great  account,^  and  rightly 
too,  if  they  only  would  not  commend  anger,  and 
say  that  it  is  implanted  by  nature  for  useful  ends. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  under  all  circumstances 
to  be  shunned,  and  it  is  desirable  that  those  who 
preside  over  the  state  should  be  like  the  laws, 
which  are  led  to  inflict  punishment,  not  by  anger, 
but  by  justice. 

26.  Again,  in  prosperity,  and  when  affairs  flow 
on  as  we  would  have  them,  we  should  with  the 
utmost  care  avoid  pride,  fastidiousness,  and  arro- 
gance; for  it  is  the  token  of  a  frivolous  mind  to 
bear  either  prosperity  or  adversity  otherwise  than 

^  The  Peripatetics,  after  Aristotle,  defined  virtue  as  always 
consisting  of  the  mean  between  two  extremes.  Thus,  courage  is 
the  mean  between  rashness  and  cowardice.  The  New  Academy, 
to  which  Cicero  belonged,  accepted  hypothetically  the  ethics  of 
the  Peripatetic  school. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  '  57 

moderately,  and  pre-eminently  praiseworthy  is  an  i 
equable  temperament  in  one's  whole  life,  the  same 
countenance  and  the  same  mien  always,  as  we  ' 
learn  was  the  case  with  Socrates,  and  equally  j 
with  Caius  Laelius.^  I  regard  Philij),  king  of 
tlie  Macedonians,  though  surpassed  by  his  son  in 
achievements  and  in  fame,  as  having  been  his  supe- 
rior in  affability  and  kindness.  Thus  the  one  was 
always  great,  the  other  often  very  mean,  —  so  as 
to  give  good  ground  for  the  rule  of  those  who 
say  that  the  higher  our  position  is,  the  more  meekly 
we  should  carry  ourselves.  Panaetius,  indeed,  tells 
us  that  Africanus,  his  pupil  and  friend,  used  to  say, 
that  as  it  is  common  to  give  horses  that,  from  hav- 
ing been  often  in  battle,  rear  and  prance  danger- 
ously, into  the  hands  of  professional  tamers,  that 
they  may  be  ridden  more  easily,  so  men,  when  at 
loose  reins  in  prosperity,  and  over  self-confident, 
should  be  brought,  as  it  were,  to  the  ring  ^  of  reason 
and  instruction,  that  they  may  fully  see  the  frailty 
of  man's  estate,  and  the  fickleness  of  fortune.  Still 
further,  in  the  extreme   of  prosperity,  especially, 

1  Caius  Laelius  Sapiens,  who  died  before  Cicero  was  born,  was 
a  man  of  but  moderate,  though  not  mean  reputation  as  a  general, 
a  statesman,  and  an  orator;  but  had  a  strong  hold  on  Cicero's 
veneration  as  second  to  no  man  of  his  time  in  elegant  culture, 
especially  in  Greek  literature  and  philosophy,  and  also  as  a  stanch 
advocate  of  the  aristocracy  as  opposed  to  the  plebs.  Cicero  makes 
him  the  chief  interlocutor  in  the  De  Amicitia,  and  one  of  the 
speakers  in  the  De  Senecttite  and  the  Dc  Bepublica. 

2  Latin,  gijruin,  the  ring  or  circle,,  round  which  horses  are 
ridden  to  break  or  tame  them. 


58  *  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

resort  is  to  lie  had  to  the  counsel  of  friends,  and 
even  greater  autliority  to  be  given  to  them  than 
under  ordinary  circumstances.  In  such  a  condi- 
tion we  must  also  take  heed  lest  we  open  our  ears 
to  flatterers,  and  suffer  ourselves  to  be  cajoled.  In 
yielding  to  sycophancy,  w^  are  always  liable  to  be 
deceived,  thinking  that  we  deserve  the  praise  be- 
stowed upon  us,  whence  proceed  numberless  mis- 
takes, men  who  are  inflated  by  self-conceit  becom- 
ing the  objects  of  coarse  derision,  and  committing 
the  most  egregious  eccentricities  in  conduct.  But 
enough  on  this  point. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  to  be  inferred 
that  the  most  important  affairs,  and  those  indicative 
of  the  highest  tone  of  spirit,  come  under  the  direc- 
tion of  men  in  public  life,  their  official  duty  having 
the  widest  scope,  and  extending  to  the  largest  num- 
ber of  persons ;  but  that  there  are  and  have  been 
many  men  of  great  mind  in  private  life,  engaged  in 
important  investigations  or  enterprises,  yet  attend- 
ing to  no  affairs  but  their  own;  while  others,  no 
less  great,  midway  between  philosophers  and  states- 
men, are  occupied  with  the  care  of  their  property, 
not,  indeed,  increasing  it  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  nor  yet  depriving  their  friends  of  the  benefit 
of  it,  but  rather,  whenever  there  is  need,  giving 
freely  to  their  friends  and  to  the  state.  Property 
thus  held  should,  in  the  first  place,  have  been  fairly 
obtained,  and  not  by  any  mean  or  offensive  calling ; 
then  it  should  show  itself  of  service  to  as  many 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  59 

as  possible,  if  they  only  be  worthy;  then,  too,  it; 
should  be  increased  by  industry  and  frugality,  andi 
should  not  lie  open  to  the  demands  of  sensuality: 
and  luxury  rather  than  to  those  of  generosity  and 
beneficence.  He  who  observes  these  rules  may 
live  in  splendor,  dignity,  and  independence,  and  at 
the  same  time  with  simplicity,  with  integrity,  and 
in  friendly  relations  with  mankind. 

27.  I  have  now  to  speak  of  the  only  remaining 
division  of  the  right,  embracing  modesty,  which 
gives  a  certain  lustre  to  life,  temperance,  discretion, 
serenity  of  soul,  and  moderation  in  all  things. 
Under  this  head  is  included  what  we  may  fitly 
call  decorum,  or  becomingness ;  ^  the  Greeks  call 
it  Trpeirov.^  The  property  of  this  is  that  it  cannot 
be  separated  from  the  right ;  for  whatever  is  becom- 
ing is  right,  and  whatever  is  right  is  becoming. 
In  what  way  the  right  and  the  becoming  differ  is 
more  easily  felt  than  told ;  for  whatever  it  is  that 
constitutes  becomingness,  it  makes  its  appearance 
when  the  right  has  gone  before ;  and  thus  the 
becoming  is  not  confined  to  the  division  of  the 
right  now  under  discussion,  but  is  equally  manifest 
in  the  three  other  divisions.  For  it  is  becoming  to 
employ  both  reason  and  speech  with  discretion,  and 

1  Literally,  what  may  be  called  in  Latin  decorum.  In  what 
follows  I  have  translated  decorum  by  the  awkward,  yet  legitimate 
word,  becomingness,  which  corresponds  in  sense  very  closely  to 
the  Latin  word,  while  in  making  decorum  an  English  word  we 
have  dropped  a  part  of  its  native  meaning. 

2  That  which  is  becoming,  or  decorous. 


60 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


to  do  what  you  do  deliberately,  and  on  every  sub- 
ject to  perceive  and  discern  the  truth ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  as  unbecoming  to  be  deceived,  to 
misjudge,  to  commit  grave  mistakes,  to  be  deluded 
into  unwise  conduct,  as  it  is  to  be  delirious  or 
insane.  Then,  too,  whatever  is  just  is  becoming; 
on  the  other  hand,  whatever  is  unjust,  as  it  is  base, 
is  also  unbecoming.  The  case  is  the  same  with 
courage ;  for  whatever  is  done  manfully  and  liigh- 
spiritedly  seems  worthy  of  a  nmn,_and^becorning ; 
whatever  is  the  opposite  of  this,  as  it  is  base,  is 
also  unbecoming.  Thus  this  becomingness  of  which 
I  speak  belongs,  indeed,  to  all  virtue,  and  so  belongs 
to  it  that  it  is  not  discerned  by  any  abstruse  pro- 
cess of  reasoning,  but  is  perfectly  obvious.  For 
there  is,  in  truth,  a  certain  something  which  is 
becoming  —  and  it  is  understood  to  be  contained 
in  every  form  of  virtue  —  which  can  be  separated 
from  virtue  in  thought  rather  than  in  fact.  As 
grace  and  beauty  of  body  cannot  be  separated  from 
health,  so  this  becomingness  of  which  I  am  speak- 
ing is  entirely  blended  with  virtue,  yet  is  distin- 
guished from  it  in  conception  and  thought.  It  has 
a  twofold  definition ;  for  there  is  a  certain  general 
becomingness  which  has  its  place  in  every  kind  of 
virtue ;  and  another,  subordinate  to  this  and  included 
within  it,  which  belongs  to  single  departments  of 
virtue.  The  former  is  usually  defined  somewhat 
in  this  way :  That  is  becoming  which  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  superiority  of  man  in  those  respects 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  61 

in  which  his  nature  differs  from  that  of  other  ani- 
mals. The  special  type  included  under  this  general 
head  may  be  defined  as  designating  that  as  becom- 
ing which  is  so  in  accordance  with  nature  as  to 
present  the  aspect  of  moderation  and  self-restraint, 
together  with  the  air  and  manner  that  befit  ingen-  i 
uous  breeding. 

28.  That  these  things  are  so  understood,  we  may 
infer  from  that  becomingness  which  is  the  poet's 
aim,  about  which  I  speak  more  at  large  in  another 
treatise.^  We  say  that  poets  observe  what  is 
becoming,  when  they  represent  that  which  befits 
each  individual  character  as  both  done  and  said. 
Thus  were  Aeacus  or  Minos ^  to  say, — 

"  No  matter  how  they  hate  me  while  they  fear  me," 

or, 

"The  very  father  is  his  children's  tomb,"  ^ 

it  would  seem  unbecoming ;  for  the  tradition  is  that 
they  were  just  men.  But  when  Atreus  ^  so  speaks, 
the  audience  applaud ;  for  the  speech  befits  the 
character.  Now,  the  poets  will  determine  from  the 
type  of  the  character  in  hand,  what  befits  each 
character.      To   us,  however,  Nature  has  assigned 

1  In  the  Orator. 

2  Sons  of  Jupiter,  said  to  have  led  such  righteous  lives  that 
they  were  made  judges  in  the  underworld. 

^  These  passages  are  probably  from  the  lost  tragedy  of  Atreus, 
by  Attius. 

*  He,  in  Greek  fable,  killed  the  children  of  his  brother 
Thyestes,  and  feasted  him  on  their  flesh. 


62  Cicero  de  Ojficiis. 

a  character  endowed  with  great  excellence  and 
superiority  over  other  animals.  The  poets,  on  their 
part,  in  a  great  diversity  of  characters,  will  deter- 
mine what  is  suitable  and  becoming  to  each,  even 
to  the  very  worst.  But  since  the  parts  of  con- 
sistency, moderation,  self-restraint,  modesty,  are  as- 
signed to  us  by  Nature,  and  since  the  same  Nature 
teaches  us  not  to  be  indifferent  as  to  the  mauner 
of  our  conduct  toward  men,  we  may  thus  see  how 
broad  is  the  scope,  both  of  that  becomingness 
which  belongs  to  all  virtue,  and  of  this  which  is 
made  manifest  in  each  several  kind  of  virtue. 
For  as  the  beauty  of  the  body  attracts  notice  by  the 
symmetry  of  the  limbs,  and  gives  delight  by  the 
very  fact  that  all  its  parts  harmonize  with  a  certain 
graceful  effect,  so  this  becomingness  which  shines 
in  the  life  calls  forth  the  esteem  of  society  by  the 
order,  consistency,  and  moderation  of  all  that  is  said 
and  done.  A  certain  measure  of  respect  should 
indeed  be  shown  toward  all  men,  whether  in  supe- 
rior position  or  on  the  common  level ;  for  indiffer- 
ence to  the  opinion  of  others  is  the  token,  not  only 
of  self-sufficiency,  but  of  utter  recklessness.  But 
in  the  treatment  of  men  there  is  a  difference  between 
justice  and  courtesy .^  It  is  the  part  of  justice  not 
to  injure  men ;  of  courtesy,  not  to  give  them  offence, 
and  it  is  in  this  last  that  the  influence  of  becoming- 

^  Latin,  verecundia,  which  commonly  denotes  modesty,  but 
here  evidently  means  that  courtesy  which  is  a  part  or  a  conse- 
quence of  modesty. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  63 

ness  is  most  clearly  seen.  With  this  exposition, 
I  think  that  the  nature  of  what  we  term  becoming 
may  be  sufficiently  understood. 

The  duty  derived  from  it  first  leads  to  conformity 
with  Nature  and  observance  of  her  fitnesses,  whom 
if  we  follow  as  a  leader,  we  shall  never  err,  and 
shall  attain  equally  that  which  is  in  its  essence 
keen  and  clear-sighted,  that  which  is  adapted  to 
human  society,  and  that  which  is  strong  and  brave.* 
But  the  chief  province  of  becomingness  is  in  the 
division  of  virtue  now  under  discussion ;  for  not 
only  movements  of  the  body  fitted  to  nature,  but 
much  more  those  movements  of  the  mind  which 
are  in  harmony  with  nature,  claim  approval.  Thoj 
natural  constitution  of  the  human  mind  is  two- 
fold. One  part  consists  in  impulse,  opfir)  ^  in  Greek, 
which  hurries  a  man  hither  and  thither ;  the  other, 
in  reason,  which  teaches  and  explains  what  is  to 
be  done  and  what  to  be  avoided.  Thus  it  is  that 
reason  fitly  presides,  and  impulse  obeys. 

29.  Every  purpose  ought  to  be  free  alike  from 
rashness  and  from  negligence,  nor  ought  anything 
to  be  done  for  which  a  reason  worthy  of  approval 
cannot  be  given.  This,  indeed,  is  almost  a  com- 
plete definition  of  duty.^     Moreover,  the  impulses 

1  The  first  three  cardinal  virtues  are  thus  enumerated^  Vaaa.^^^*'^*' \  V»j»)I-vc« 
^  Literally,  impulse.     The  Latin  word  here  is  appetitus,  which    ^j.^^1^«jd7, 
I  have  rendered  impulse,  because  auger  and  fear  are  included 
imder  it. 

8  Officium,  from  facere  ob,  to  do  on  account  of,  or  for  a  suffi- 
cient reason. 


64  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

must  be  made  obedient  to  reason,  and  neither  get 
the  advance  of  it,  nor  yet  from  stupidity  or  indo- 
lence lag  behind  it,  and  they  must  be  quiet  and 
free  from  all  excitement,  —  a  state  of  things  which 
will  show  consistency  and  moderation  in  their  full 
lustre.  For  impulses  which  rove  too  far,  prancing, 
as  it  were,  either  in  the  pursuit  or  avoidance  of 
objects  within  their  scope,  and  not  sufficiently  held 
in  by  reason,  evidently  transcend  bound  and  meas- 
ure; for  they  desert  and  repudiate  obedience,  nor 
do  they  submit  themselves  to  reason,  to  which  they 
are  subject  by  the  law  of  nature.  By  such  impulses 
not  only  minds,  but  bodies  are  thrown  into  disturb- 
ance. You  can  discriminate  at  sight  the  very  coun- 
tenances of  the  angry,  of  those  who  are  excited 
by  sensual  passion  or  by  fear,  or  of  those  who  are 
beside  themselves  through  excess  of  pleasure,  in  all 
of  whom  face,  voice,  gait,  and  posture  are  changed. 
Hence,  —  to  return  to  the  delineation  of  duty,  —  it 
is  inferred  that  all  the  appetites  must  be  checked 
and  calmed,  and  Ihat  watchfulness  and  care  must 
be  on  the  alert  to  prevent  us  from  doing  anything 
rashly  and  at  haphazard,  inconsiderately  and  care- 
lessly. For  we  are  not  so  constituted  by  nature 
as  to  seem  made  for  sport  and  jest,  but  rather  for 
sobriety  and  for  certain  more  weighty  and  impor- 
tant pursuits.  It  is,  indeed,  right  to  indulge  in  sport 
and  jest,  but  only  as  in  sleep  and  other  relaxations, 
when  we  have  done  full  justice  to  grave  and  serious 
concerns.     Still  further,  the  very  style  of  jesting 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  65 

ouglit  not  to  be  extravagant  or  immoderate,  but  in 
pure  taste  and  with  genuine  humor.  For  as  we  do 
not  give  boys  the  unlimited  liberty  of  play,  but 
only  that  degree  of  freedom  which  is  consistent 
with  good  conduct,  so  in  jest  itself  there  ought  to! 
shine  forth  something  of  the  radiance  of  a  pure! 
character.  There  are,  in  truth,  two  kinds  of  jokes, 
—  the  one  vulgar,  impertinent,  vicious,  obscene ; 
the  other,  elegant,  refined,  witty,  humorous.  This 
last  kind  fills  not  only  our  own  Plautus  and  the  old 
comedy  of  the  Athenians,  but  also  the  books  of  the 
Socratic  philosophers ;  and  many  things  of  this  sort 
have  been  wittily  said  by  many  persons,  as,  for 
instance,  those  sayings  collected  by  the  elder  Cato  ^ 
which  they  call  a'iroj)6e^iJLaTa?  The  distinction! 
between  a  refined  and  a  vulgar  joke  is  easily  made. 
The  one,  if  not  untimely,  is  worthy  of  any  man  at 
leisure  ;  the  other,  unworthy  of  any  man  above  the 
condition  of  a  slave,  if  polluted  by  vile  images  or 
filthy  words.     A  certain   limit  is  to  be  observed 

1  Marcus  Porcius  Cato,  the  Censor.  This  collection  is  lost ; 
but  there  are  some  specimens  of  its  contents  in  Cicero's  Orator. 
Collections  of  this  kind,  probably,  were  not  unusual  among  the 
ancients,  though,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  one  has  been  preserved 
in  eitlier  of  the  classic  tongues,  namely,  the  'Aarela  of  Hierocles, 
the  work,  probably,  of  a  compiler  of  wliom  no  other  vestige 
remains. 

2  Apophthegms,  terse,  pithy  sayings,  including  jokes.  Lord 
Bacon's  "  Apophthegms  New  and  Old  "  are,  all  of  them,  anec- 
dotes comprising  smart,  pointed  sayings,  and  many  of  them 
jokes. 

5 


66  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

in  sport,  also,  lest  we  run  into  excess,  and,  carried 
away  by  pleasure,  lapse  into  some  kind  of  disgrace- 
ful conduct.  Our  field^  for  athletic  exercises,  and 
the  amusement  of  the  chase,  furnish  proper  exam- 
ples of  sport. 

30.  It  is  appropriate  to  every  discussion  of  duty, 
always  to  bear  in  mind  how  far  the  nature  of  man 
excels  that  of  cattle  and  other  beasts.  They  feel 
nothing  save  sensual  pleasure,  and  toward  that  they 
are  borne  by  every  instinct ;  but  the  mind  of  man 
is  nourished  by  learning  and  reflection,  is  constantly 
thinking  or  doing  something,  and  is  led  by  the 
pleasure  and  profit  derived  from  what  is  seen  and 
heard.  And  even  if  one  is  unduly  inclined  to 
sensual  pleasure,  if  he  only  be  not  on  a  level  with 
brute  beasts,  —  for  there  are  some  who  are  men,  not 
in  fact,  but  in  name,  —  if  he  be  ever  so  little  above 
them,  although  captivated  with  the  mere  delight 
of  the  senses,  he  hides  and  dissembles  the  appetite 
for  such  pleasure  from  very  shame.  Hence  it  is 
inferred  that  bodily  pleasure  is  unworthy  of  man's 
superior  endowments,  and  ought  to  be  despised  and 
spurned ;  and  if  there  be  any  one  who  sets  some 
value  on  sensual  gratification,  he  should  carefully 
keep  it  within  due  limits.  Thus  food  and  the  care 
of  the  body  should  be  ordered  with  reference 
to  health  and   strength,  not  to   sensual  pleasure. 

1  The  Campus  Martins,  used  by  the  Roman  youth  for  riding, 
driving,  swimming,  and  various  athletic  sports. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  67 

Indeed,  if  we  will  only  bear  in  mind  what  excel- 
lence and  dignity  belong  to  human  nature,  we  shall 
understand  how  base  it  is  to  give  one's  self  up  to 
luxury,  and  to  live  voluptuously  and  wantonly,  and 
how  honorable  it  is  to  live  frugally,  chastely,  cir- 
cumspectly, soberly. 

But  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  are  endowed  i 
by  nature  as  it  were  with  two  characters,  one  of 
which  is  common  to  us  with  other  men,  inasmuch 
as  we  all  partake  of  reason,  and  of  the  traits  which 
raise  us  above  the  brutes,  from  which  all  that  is 
right  and  becoming  is  derived,  and  from  which  we 
seek  the  method  of  ascertaining  our  duty;  while 
the  other  is  that  which  is  assigned  to  each  of  us 
individually.  For  as  in  bodies  there  are  great 
dissimilarities,  —  we  see  some  excelling  in  speed 
for  the  race,  others  in  strength  for  wrestling ;  also 
in  personal  appearance,  some  have  dignity,  others 
grace,  —  so  in  minds  there  are  even  greater  diver- 
sities. Lucius  Crassus  and  Lucius  Philippus  had 
a  great  deal  of  pleasantry ;  Caius  Caesar,  the  son  of 
Lucius,  even  more  and  more  elaborate ;  while  in 
their  contemporaries,  Marcus  Scaurus  and  Marcus 
Drusus  the  younger,  there  was  an  unusual  severity 
of  manner;  in  Caius  Laelius,  much  mirthfulness ; 
in  his  friend  Scipio,  greater  ambition,  a  more  au- 
stere type  of  character.  Among  the  Greeks,  too, 
we  have  learned  that  Socrates  was  pleasant  and 
facetious,  and  had  a  jocose  way  of  talking,  and 
meant  more  than  he  said,  one  whom  the  Greeks 


68  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

call  etpcova;  ^  on  the  other  hand,  that  Pythagoras 
and  Pericles  obtained  the  highest  authority  in  their 
intercourse  with  men  without  any  seasoning  of 
mirthfulness.  We  are  informed  that,  of  the  Car- 
thaginians, Hannibal  was  crafty,  and  of  our  own 
commanders,  that  Quintus  Maximus  readily  prac- 
tised concealment,  kept  silence,  dissembled,  laid 
snares,  anticipated  the  plans  of  his  enemies.  In 
these  traits  the  Greeks  assign  the  foremost  place 
to  Themistocles  and  Jason  of  Pherae,  and  accord 
pre-eminent  praise  to  the  cunning  and  crafty  pro- 
cedure of  Solon,  who,  for  his  own  safety,  and  that 
he  might  render  additional  service  to  the  state, 
feigned  insanity .^  There  are  others  of  very  unlike 
character,  simple  and  open,  who  think  that  nothing 
should  be  done  covertly  or  insidiously,  votaries  of 
truth,  enemies  of  fraud ;  others  still,  who  will  en- 
dure anything  whatever,  and  will  be  subservient 
to  any  one  whomsoever,  till  they  attain  what  they 
desire,  as  we  saw  in  the  case  of  Sulla  and  of  Marcus 
Crassus,  Of  this  class  of  men  we  learn  that  Lysan- 
der,  the  Lacedaemonian,  was  unsurpassed  in  crafty 

1  The  accusative  of  etpojv,  which  literally  means  a  dissembler. 
Hence  our  word  irony,  which  always  involves  the  idea  of  a  double 
meaning,  and  especially  of  a  secondary  meaning  which  shall  be 
latent  to  the  person  addressed  or  satirized,  patent  to  every  one  else. 

2  When  Athens  had  failed  in  a  contest  with  Megara  for  the 
possession  of  Salamis,  a  law  was  passed  rendering  it  ciiminal  to 
advocate  the  renewal  of  the  contest.  Solon  evaded  the  law  by 
feigning  insanity,  and  recited  a  poem  of  his  own,  calling  upon  the 
people  to  reconquer  the  ' '  lovely  island. "  The  law  was  repealed, 
the  war  renewed,  and  the  island  won. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  69 

plotting  and  in  his  power  of  endurance,  while 
Callicratidas,  who  succeeded  Lysander  in  the  com- 
mand of  the  fleet,  was  of  the  opposite  character. 
Also  in  speech,  we  sometimes  see  a  man  of 
surpassing  ability  contrive  to  appear  like  one  of 
the  multitude,  as  we  witnessed  in  Catulus,  both 
father  and  son,  and  in  Quintus  Mucins  Mancia. 
We  have  heard  from  those  of  an  earlier  generation 
that  this  was  the  habit  of  Publius  Scipio  Nasica, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  his  father,  the  man 
who  avenged  the  nefarious  enterprises  of  Tiberius 
Gracchus,  had  nothing  genial  in  his  address.  We 
learn,  too,  that  Xenocrates,  indeed  the  sternest  of 
philosophers,  was  on  this  very  score  eminent  and 
renowned.^  There  are  other  innumerable  diversi- 
ties of  nature  and  of  manners,  which  yet  give  no 
good  ground  for  obloquy. 

31.  Every  one  ought  to  hold  fast,  not  his  faults, 
but  his  peculiarities,  so  as  to  retain  more  easily  the 
becomingness  which  is  the  subject  of  our  inquiry. 
We  ought,  indeed,  to  act  in  such  a  way  as  shall 
be  in  no  respect  repugnant  to  our  common  human 
nature ;  yet,  holding  this  sacred,  let  us  follow  our 
individual  nature,  so  that,  if  there  are  other  pur- 
suits in  themselves  more  important  and  excellent, 

1  Of  the  traits  of  personal  character  described  in  this  section, 
some  are  known  only  on  Cicero's  authority  ;  while  others,  attached 
to  well-known  names,  are  matters  of  history.  I  have  not  thought 
it  necessary  to  give,  as  I  easily  might,  under  the  successive  names, 
a  series  of  extracts  from  a  dictionary  of  classical  biography. 


70  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

we  yet  may  measure  our  own  pursuits  by  the  stand- 
ard of  our  own  nature.  For  it  is  of  no  avail  to 
resist  nature,  or  to  pursue  anything  which  we  can- 

'  not  reach.  It  is  the  more  apparent  of  what  quality 
is  the  becomingness  under  discussion,  when  we 
consider  that  nothing  is  becoming  that  is  done,  as 
the  phrase  is,  without  Minerva's  sanction,  that  is, 
with  the  opposition  and  repugnancy  of  nature.  In 
truth,  if  anything  is  becoming,  nothing  surely  is 
more  so  than  uniform  consistency  in  the  whole 
course  of  life  and  in  each  separate  action,  which 
you  cannot  preserve  if,  imitating  the  nature  of 
others,  you  abandon  your  own.  For  as  we  ought 
to  use  our  native  tongue,  and  not,  like  some  who 
are  perpetually  foisting  in  Greek  words,  incur  well- 
deserved  ridicule,  so  we  ought  not  to  introduce  any 
discordance  into  our  conduct  and  our  general  way 
of  living.  This  difference  of  natures,  indeed,  has 
so  much  force  that  sometimes  one  person  ought, 
and  another  under  the  same  circumstances  ought 

I  not,  to  commit  suicide.^  For  was  the  case  of  Mar- 
cus Cato  different  from  that  of  the  others  who 
surrendered  to  Caesar  in  Africa  ?  Yet  had  they 
killed  themselves,  they  might  perhaps  have  been 
worthy  of  censure,  because  their  mode  of  life  was 

*  It  is  well  known  that  from  Zeno,  who  committed  suicide 
when  he  thought  his  life  no  longer  serviceable,  down  to  Seneca, 
the  Stoics  maintained  the  right  of  suicide  as  a  mode  of  relief 
from  irretrievable  evil,  whether  bodily  disease  or  untoward  cir- 
cumstances. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  71 

less  severe,  and  their  characters  were  more  pliant ; 
while,  since  Nature  had  given  Cato  an  incredi- 
ble massiveness  of  character,  and  he  himself  had 
strengthened  it  by  undeviating  self-consistency,  and 
had  always  been  steadfast  in  the  purpose  once  con- 
ceived and  the  design  once  undertaken,  it  seemed 
fit  for  him  to  die  rather  than  to  look  upon  the  face 
of  a  tyrant.  How  many  things  did  Ulysses  endure 
in  his  long  wandering,  while  he  submitted  to  the 
service  of  women,  —  if  Circe  and  Calypso  are  to  be 
called  women,  —  and  while  he  strove  to  be  affable 
and  pleasant  to  all  in  his  whole  social  intercourse ! 
At  home,  also,  he  bore  the  jeers  of  slaves  and  maid- 
servants, that  he  might  attain  the  object  of  his 
desire.  But  Ajax,  with  the  temper  which  he  is 
said  to  have  had,  would  have  faced  death  a  thou- 
sand times  rather  than  have  borne  such  insults. 
In  view  of  these  things,  it  will  be  each  man's  duty 
to  weigh  well  what  are  his  own  peculiar  traits  of 
character,  and  to  keep  them  in  serviceable  condi- 
tion, and  not  to  desire  to  try  how  far  another  man's 
peculiarities  may  be  becoming  to  him ;  for  that  is 
most  becoming  to  each  man  which  is  most  pecu- 
liarly his  own.  Let  each  of  us,  then,  know  his  own 
capacities  and  proclivities,  and  show  himself  a 
discriminating  judge  of  his  own  excellences  and 
defects,  lest  performers  on  the  stage  may  evince 
more  discretion  than  we  do.  For  they  choose,  not 
the  best  plays,  but  those  the  best  adapted  to  their 
respective  abilities,  —  those  who  rely  on  voice,  the 


72  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

Epigoni  and  Medus ;  those  who  depend  on  action, 
Menalippa  or  Clytaemnestra ;  Eutilius,  whom  I 
remember,  Antiopa  always ;  Aesopus,  not  often 
Ajax.*  An  actor,  then,  will  look  to  tliis  fitness 
on  the  stage;  shall  not  the  wise  man  have  equal 
regard  to  it  in  life  ?  Let  us  therefore  bestow  our 
diligence  chiefly  on  those  concerns  for  which  we 
are  the  best  fitted.  Bat  if  at  any  time  necessity 
shall  have  forced  us  to  undertake  things  outside  of 
our  specialty,  we  must  employ  all  possible  care, 
thought,  and  diligence,  that  we  may  be  able  to 
dispose  of  them,  if  not  becomingly,  yet  with  the 
least  degree  of  unbecomingness ;  nor  ought  we  in 
that  case  to  endeavor  to  attain  capacities  not  our 
own,  so  much  as  to  avoid  mistake  or  failure. 

32.  To  the  two  characters  which,  as  I  have  said, 
every  man  must  sustain,  is  added  a  third,  imposed 
upon  us  by  chance,  or  by  circumstances  beyond  our 
power ;  a  fourth,  also,  which  we  assume  at  our  own 
discretion.  Posts  of  authority,  military  commands, 
high  rank,  honors,  wealth,  and  their  opposites,  at 
the  disposal  of  chance,  are  controlled  by  circum- 
stance. But  it  depends  on  our  own  choice  what 
character  we  will  assume  as  to  a  favorite  pursuit 
or  profession.      Thus   some   apply   themselves   to 

1  None  of  the  tragedies  here  named  are  extant.  It  would 
appear  that  on  the  Roman  as  on  the  modem  stage,  actors  not 
only  had  parts  assigned  them  according  to  their  peculiar  types  of 
ability,  but  that  the  genius  of  a  leading  actor  determined  the 
choice  of  the  play  in  which  he  should  appear. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  73 

philosophy;  some,  to  the  civil  law;  some,  to  ora- 
tory; and  of  the  several  virtues  some  prefer  to 
excel  in  one,  some  in  another.  Those,  indeed, 
whose  fathers  or  ancestors  have  held  any  special 
distinction,  generally  aim  at  eminence  in  the  same 
department,  as  Quintus  Mucins,  the  son  of  Publius, 
in  the  civil  law;  Africanus,  the  son  of  Paulus,  in 
military  service.  But  some  add  to  the  honors 
inherited  from  their  fathers  a  special  reputation 
of  their  own,  as  this  very  Africanus  crowned  his 
military  renown  by  eloquence.  Timotheus,  the 
son  of  Conon,  also  did  the  like,  being  fully  his 
father's  equal  in  military  reputation,  and  adding 
to  it  the  praise  of  learning  and  genius.  It  is,  how- 
ever, now  and  then  the  case  that  young  men,  for- 
saking the  example  of  their  ancestors,  pursue  some 
plan  of  their  own ;  and  this  is  the  course,  almost 
always,  of  those  who,  of  obscure  origin,  set  before 
themselves  large  aims.  All  these  things  ought  to 
be  taken  into  careful  consideration  when  we  inquire 
what  is  becoming. 

At  the  outset,  we  should  determine  in  what  con- 
dition we  wish  to  be,  in  what  kind  of  pursuits,  and 
whether  in  private  or  public  life,  —  a  decision  the 
most  difficult  of  all ;  for  it  is  in  early  youth,  when 
judgment  is  the  weakest,  that  one  chooses  some 
mode  of  life  with  which  he  has  become  enamored, 
and  thus  is  involved  in  a  fixed  avocation  and  course 
before  he  is  capable  of  judging  what  is  best  for 
him.     For  as  to  what  they  say  of  the  Hercules  of 


74  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

Prodicus,  as  quoted  by  Xenophon,^  that  when  he 
was  just  approaching  maturity  —  the  time  given  by 
nature  to  every  one  to  choose  what  course  of  life 
he  will  enter  —  he  went  into  a  solitary  place,  and 
sitting  there,  hesitated  long  and  seriously  within 
himself,  which  of  the  two  paths  before  him,  one  of 
pleasure,  the  other  of  virtue,  it  was  better  for  him 
to  take,  —  this  might  perchance  happen  to  Hercules, 
the  son  of  Jupiter,  but  not  in  like  manner  to  us, 
who  imitate  whomsoever  we  see  fit,  and  feel  im- 
pelled toward  their  pursuits  and  modes  of  life, 
yet  still  oftener,  imbued  with  the  advice  of  our 
parents,  are  drawn  into  their  manners  and  habits ; 
while  others,  still,  are  carried  away  by  popular  opin- 
ion, and  make  choice  of  those  things  that  seem 
most  charming  to  the  multitude.  Yet  some,  whether 
by  happy  fortune,  or  by  goodness  of  nature,  or  by 
parental  discipline,  enter  upon  the  right  way  of 
living. 

33.  But  the  rarest  description  is  of  those  who, 
endowed  either  with  the  prestige  of  surpassing 
genius,  or  with  pre-eminent  culture  and  learning, 
or  with  both,  have  time  to  deliberate  what  course 
of  life  they  would  prefer  to  follow,  —  in  which 
deliberation  the  issue  should  be  made  to  conform 
to  one's  own  natural  bias.  For  while  in  the  details 
of  conduct  we  determine  what  is  becoming  from  a 
man's  native  disposition,  so  in  ordering  the  entire 

1  Xenophon,  in  the  Memorabilia,  gives  tMs  story  by  Prodicus, 
as  cited  by  Socrates. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  75 

course  of  life  mucli  greater  care  should  be  taken 
that  we  may  be  consistent  with  ourselves  so  long  as 
we  live,  and  may  not  falter  in  the  discharge  of  any 
one  duty.  But  while  in  determining  our  course  na- 
ture has  the  greatest  influence,  fortune  comes  next 
in  controlling  power,  and  account  must  be  taken  \ 
of  both  in  choosing  a  mode  of  life,  —  yet  most,  , 
of  nature.  For  Nature  is  far  the  more  stable  and 
consistent  of  the  two,  so  that  Fortune  —  herself 
mortal  —  sometimes  seems  to  be  in  conflict  with 
Nature,  the  immortal.  Let  him,  then,  who  refers 
his  entire  plan  of  life  to  his  nature  so  far  as  it  is 
unvitiated,  go  on  as  he  has  begun  (for  this  is  in  the 
highest  degree  becoming),  unless  he  be  made  aware 
that  he  was  mistaken  in  his  choice.  If  this  take 
place  (and  it  may),  a  change  of  habits  and  of  plans 
is  requisite.  If  circumstances  favor  this  change, 
we  can  make  it  with  a  good  measure  of  ease  and 
convenience ;  otherwise,  it  must  be  made  gradually 
and  step  by  step,  just  as  it  is  more  becoming,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  wise,  to  unknit  gradually  friendships 
which  no  longer  please  or  satisfy  us,  than  to  cut  ^ 
them  in  sunder  with  a  sinctle  stroke.  But  when 
our  mode  of  life  is  changed,  we  ought  by  all  means 
to  take  heed  that  we  present  some  show  of  sufficient 
reason.  To  return  to  what  I  said  awhile  ago  as  to 
the  fitness  of  imitating  parents  and  ancestors,  an 
exception  is  to  be  made,  in  the  first  place,  as  to 
their  faults,  which  we  are  not  to  reproduce ;  and,  in 

^  Latin,  dissiierc — praeddere;  to  unsew  —  to  cut. 


76  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

the  next  place,  if  nature  will  not  permit  this  imita- 
tion in  certain  particulars,  —  as  the  son  of  the  elder 
Africanus  ^  (who  adopted  the  younger  Africanus,  the 
son  of  Paulus)  on  account  of  feeble  health  could 
not  resemble  his  father  as  his  father  had  resembled 
his  grandfather,  —  if,  for  instance,  one  cannot  fre- 
quent the  courts  as  an  advocate,  or  hold  the  ear  of 
the  people  in  their  assemblies,  or  conduct  military 
enterprises,  he  ought  at  least  to  exhibit  the  quali- 
ties which  are  at  his  own  command,  justice,  good 
faith,  generosity,  moderation,  temperance,  so  that 
public  opinion  may  not  require  of  him  those  things 
in  which  he  is  inevitably  deficient.  But  the  best 
inheritance  that  fathers  can  give  their  children, 
more  precious  than  any  patrimony  however  large, 
is  reputation  for  virtue  and  for  worthy  deeds,  which 
if  the  child  disgraces,  his  conduct  should  be  branded 
as  infamous  and  impious, 

34.  Since  the  same  duties  are  not  assigned  to 
different   periods   of  life,    some   belonging   to   the 

1  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  Africanus,  bearing  the  same  name 
with  his  father,  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal,  whose  father  was 
Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  alternately  victor  and  vanquished  in 
the  first  Punic  war.  This  second  Africanus  was  regarded  as 
superior  in  ability,  no  less  than  in  learning  and  elegant  culture, 
to  all  the  other  members  of  the  Scipio  gens,  but  was  too  feeble  in 
health  to  take  any  part  in  public  affairs,  except  in  the  peaceful 
offices  of  Augur  and  Flamen  Dialis.  He  had  no  children,  but 
adopted  a  son  of  Lucius  Aemilius  Paulus,  Publius  Cornelius 
Scipio  Aemilianus  Africanus,  under  whose  generalship  Carthage 
was  finally  subdued,  and  the  city  destroyed. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  77 

young,  others  to  those  more  advanced  in  years, 
this  distinction  needs  to  be  spoken  of.  It  is,  then, 
the  part  of  the  young  man  to  revere  his  elders,  and 
to  clioose  from  among  them  the  best  and  the  most 
approved,  on  whose  advice  and  authority  he  may 
rely;  for  the  inexperience  of  early  life  demands  the 
wisdom  of  older  men  for  its  stability  and  its  right 
direction.  But  most  of  all  is  this  early  age  to  be 
guarded  against  sensuality,  and  to  be  trained  in 
labor  and  endurance,  both  of  mind  and  of  body, 
that  the  capacity  of  persistent  diligence  may  be 
developed  alike  for  military  service  and  for  civic 
duty.  Moreover,  when  the  young  wish  to  relax 
their  minds  and  to  give  themselves  up  to  enjoy- 
ment, let  them  beware  of  excess,  let  them  keep 
modesty  in  mind,  which  they  will  do  the  more  if 
their  elders  will  interest  themselves  also  in  matters 
of  this  sort.  But  for  old  men  it  would  seem  that 
bodily  labor  ought  to  be  slackened,  while  mental 
efforts  are  to  be  even  increased.  At  the  same  time 
they  should  take  pains  to  aid  their  friends,  and  tlie 
young  men,  and,  above  all,  the  state,  as  much  as 
possible  by  their  counsel  and  experience.  But 
nothing  is  to  be  more  shunned  by  old  age  than 
self-surrender  to  listlessness  and  indolence.  Luxu- 
rious living,  too,  unbecoming  at  any  period  of  life, 
is  most  shameful  for  old  age ;  and  if  to  this  licen- 
tiousness be  added,  the  evil  is  double;  for  thus  old 
age  at  once  disgraces  itself,  and  makes  the  excess  of 
youth  still  more  shameless. 


78    ,  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

Still  further,  it  is  not  irrelevant  to  treat  of  the 
duties  of  magistrates  and  of  those  in  private  life, 
of  citizens  ^  and  of  foreigners.  It  is,  then,  the 
special  function  of  the  magistrate  to  regard  himself 
as  representing  the  person  of  the  state,  and  bound 
to  maintain  its  dignity  and  honor,  to  enforce  the 
laws,  to  define  conflicting  rights,  and  to  bear  in 
mind  whatever  is  committed  to  his  good  faith. 
The  private  citizen  ought  to  live  on  fair  and  equal 
terms  with  his  fellow-citizens,  neither  cringing 
and  grovelling,  nor  yet  assuming  supercilious  airs. 
Then  too,  in  the  state  he  ought  to  choose  those 
things  which  are  peaceful  and  honorable;  for  we 
are  wont  to  feel  and  to  say  that  such  a  man  is  a 
good  citizen.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  foreigner  and 
a  temporary  resident  to  do  nothing  beyond  his  own 
business,  not  to  pry  into  the  concerns  of  other 
people,  and,  least  of  all,  to  be  meddlesome  in  the 
affairs  of  the  state  in  which  he  is  an  alien.  Thus, 
for  the  most  part,  duties  can  be  ascertained,  when 
the  inquiry  is  raised  what  is  becoming  and  what 
is  fitting  for  different  persons,  occasions,  and  ages. 
But  there  is  nothing  which  is  so  becoming  as  to 
maintain  consistency  in  all  that  we  do  and  under- 
take. 

35.  Since  becomingness  in  all  that  is  done  and 
said  has  its  place  also  in  the  movement  and  atti- 

1  Latin,  privcUorum  —  civium,  referring  to  the  same  persons, 
in  contradistinction,  fii-st  to  magistrates,  and  secondly  to  for- 
eigners. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  79 

tude  of  the  body,  and  consists  in  three  things, 
beauty,  order,  and  attire  fitted  for  the  work  in 
hand,  difficult  to  express  in  words,  —  but  it  will  be 
enough  if  they  are  felt,  —  and  since  in  these  is 
included  our  care  to  win  the  approval  of  those 
among  whom  we  live,  a  few  things  ought  to  be 
said  as  to  these  particulars.  In  the  beginning 
Nature  seems  to  have  made  great  account  of  our 
bodies,  having  placed  in  plain  sight  our  frame  and 
such  parts  of  our  structure  as  have  a  comely  appear- 
ance, while  she  has  covered  and  concealed  those 
parts  of  the  body  bestowed  for  the  needs  of  nature, 
which  might  have  an  unshapely  and  ugly  aspect. 
This  so  careful  construction  of  Nature  the  modesty 
of  men  has  followed ;  for  the  very  things  which 
Nature  has  hidden  all  persons  of  sound  mind  keep 
out  of  sight,  and  are  at  pains  to  obey  the  necessities 
connected  with  them  as  secretly  as  possible.  More- 
over, as  to  these  same  parts  of  the  body,  whose  uses 
are  necessary,  they  call  neither  them  nor  their  uses 
by  their  proper  names,  and  what  it  is  not  disgrace- 
ful to  do,  if  it  be  only  in  secret,  it  is  obscene  to 
name.  Thus  the  open  doing  of  these  things  and 
the  obscene  mention  of  them  are  equally  liable  to 
the  charge  of  immodesty.  Nor  is  any  heed  to  be 
given  to  the  Cynics,  or  to  those  Stoics  who  are 
almost  Cynics,^  who  make  it  a  matter  of  reproach 

1  The  Cynics  undoubtedly  took  their  name  from  the  Kwbaap- 
7ey,  —  one  of  the  Athenian  gymnasia  in  which  their  founder, 
Antisthenes,  a  pupil  of  Socrates,  held  his  school ;  but  some  by  no 


80  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

and  ridicule  that  we  deem  things  that  are  not 
shameful  in  fact  unfit  to  be  called  by  their  right 
names,  while  we  apply  their  proper  names  to  things 
that  are  really  shameful.  Thus  theft,  fraud,  and 
adultery  are  shameful  in  fact,  but  it  is  not  obscene 
to  call  them  by  their  names ;  while  to  perpetuate 
one's  family  is  right  in  fact,  yet  obscene  in  name. 
On  this  notion  those  same  philosophers  hold  pro- 
lix arguments  at  the  expense  of  modesty.  But  let 
us  follow  Nature,  and  refrain  from  whatever  lacks 
the  approval  of  eye  and  ear.  Let  attitude,  gait, 
mode  of  sitting,  posture  at  table,  countenance,  eyes, 
movement  of  the  hands,  preserve  the  becomingness 
of  which  I  speak.  In  these  matters  there  are  two 
extremes  to  be  especially  shunned,  —  on  the  one 
liand,  effeminacy  or  daintiness,  on  the  other,  coarse- 
ness or  rusticity.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  admitted  that 
these  rules,  though  proper  for  actors  and  public 
speakers,  are  matters  of  indifference  to  us.  The 
custom  of  actors,  from  ancient  tradition,  carries 
modesty  so  far  that  no  one  is  permitted  to  go  upon 

means  contemptible  authorities  derive  the  name  from  Kiuv,  a  dog, 
and  ascribe  it  to  the  snarling  habit  of  the  early  disciples  of  the 
school,  who  were  wont  to  sneer  and  scoff  at  what  the  rest  of  the 
world  admired  and  prized.  Diogenes  of  Sinope  represented  this 
type  of  character.  Stoicism,  in  the  person  of  Zeno,  sprang  out 
of  the  bosom  of  Cynicism,  and  embodied  in  its  philosophy  and 
ethics  the  fundamental  principle  of  Antisthenes,  that  virtue  is 
not  the  supreme,  but  the  sole  good.  The  later  Cynics  were 
characterized  mainly  by  insolence,  gratuitous  indecency,  and  aim- 
less asceticism. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  81 

the  stage  without  drawers,  in  the  fear  that  in  case 
of  the  accidental  exposure  of  certain  parts  of  the 
body  they  may  present  an  unbecoming  spectacle. 
Our  usage  also  forbids  sons  of  ripe  age  from  bath- 
ing with  their  fathers,  sons-in-law  with  their  fathers- 
in-law.  This  kind  of  modesty  is  to  be  adhered 
to,  especially  as  Nature  herself  is  mistress  and 
guide. 

36.  While  there  are  two  kinds  of  beauty,  in  one 
of  which  grace,  in  the  other  dignity,  predominates, 
we  ought  to  regard  grace  as  belonging  to  woman, 
dignity  to  man.  Let  then  every  species  of  apparel 
or  adornment  unworthy  of  a  man  be  removed  from 
his  person,  and  let  him  guard  against  similar  faults 
in  attitude  and  gesture.  For  the  manners  of  the 
wrestling  ground  ^  are  apt  to  be  somewhat  disagree- 
able, and  the  affected  attitudes  of  actors  frequently 
give  offence ;  while  in  the  entire  carriage  of  the 
body  whatever  is  direct  and  simple  receives  com- 
mendation. Dignity  of  person  is  to  be  made  sure 
by  healthiness  of  complexion,  and  the  complexion 
is  to  be  maintained  by  bodily  exercise.  There 
should  be  rendered,  with  reference  to  neatness,  a 
regard  not  offensively  remiss,  nor  yet  over-punctil- 
ious, just  sufficient  to  avoid  rustic  and  ill-bred 
slovenliness.  The  same  rule  is  to  be  observed  in  i 
dress,  in  which,  as  in  most  things,  that  which  is  | 

1  Palaestrici  motus,  literally,  palaestric  movements.  The  pa- 
laestra was  the  resort  of  the  young  men  of  wealth  and  fashion,  and 
thus  a  nursery  of  foppish  manners  no  less  than  of  bodily  vigor. 

6 


82  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

"becoming  lies  between  the  two  extremes.  Care 
must  also  be  taken  lest  in  our  gait  we  accustom 
ourselves  to  effeminate  slowness,  like  the  litters 
that  carry  in  procession  the  images  of  the  gods,  or 
when  time  presses  attempt  excessive  speed,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  panting  ensues,  the  countenance 
is  changed,  the  features  are  distorted,  from  all  which 
the  obvious  inference  is  that  there  is  a  lack  of  stead- 
fastness in  the  character.  But  much  greater  pains 
should  be  taken  lest  the  movements  of  the  mind 
should  transcend  their  natural  equipoise;  and  this 
we  shall  effect  if  we  guard  against  violent  emotions 
and  fits  of  despondency,  and  if  we  keep  our  minds 
intent  on  the  observance  of  what  is  becoming.  But 
the  operations  of  the  mind  are  of  two  kinds,  — 
the  one  of  thought,  the  other  of  impulse.  Thought 
is  occupied  chiefly  in  seeking  the  truth ;  impulse 
urges  to  action.  Care,  then,  is  to  be  taken  that  we 
employ  thought  on  the  best  subjects  possible,  and 
that  we  make  impulse  obedient  to  reason. 

37.  To  pass  to  anotlier  subject,  the  power  of 
speech  being  great,  and  of  two  kinds,  the  one  of 
oratory,  the  other  of  conversation,  let  oratory  find 
place  in  the  arguments  of  courts,  popular  assemblies, 
and  the  Senate ;  let  conversation  have  its  scope  in 
smaller  circles,  in  the  discussion  of  ordinary  affairs, 
in  the  gatherings  of  friends,  —  let  it  also  follow  ^ 

1  Sequatur,  which  I  have  translated  literally ;  for  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  trace  the  festal  habits  of  the  ancients,  from 
Homer's  heroes  downward,  they  ate  in  silence,  and  talked  after- 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  83 

convivial   entertainments.      The   rhetoricians   give 

rules  for  oratory;  there  are  none  for  conversation. 

Yet  I  know  not  but  that  conversation  might  alsoi 

have  its  rules.     Masters  are  found  when  learners 

want  them ;  but  there  are  none  who  make  conver- 
.  .  .  I 

sation  a  study,  while  the  rhetoricians  have  crowds  i 

of  pupils.  Yet  the  rules  given  about  words  and 
sentences  apply  to  conversation  no  less  than  to 
oratory.  And  since  we  have  the  voice  as  the  organ  i 
of  speech,  let  us  at  least  attempt  two  things  as  to 
the  voice,  —  to  have  it  distinct,  and  to  have  it 
pleasing  to  the  ear.  For  botli  we  must  of  course 
look  to  nature;  but  the  one  may  be  improved  by 
practice,  the  other  by  imitating  those  who  pronounce 
neither  too  broadly  nor  too  rapidly.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  Catuli  ^  that  would  make  you  think 
them  of  exquisite  taste  in  literature,  —  though  they 
were  men  of  letters,  but  only  as  others  are,  —  yet 
they  were  thought  to  speak  the  Latin  language 
as  perfectly  as  it  could  be  spoken.  Their  pronun- 
ciation was  sweet  to  the  ear ;  the  separate  letters 
were  neither  drawled  nor  clipped,  so  as  to  avoid 
equally  indistinctness  and  affectation ;  they  spoke 
without  effort,  in  a  voice  neither  languid  nor  shrill. 

ward.  This  is  implied  in  the  uses  of  the  term  (TVfnr6<nov,  sympo- 
sium, a  drinking  together  after  the  more  solid  portions  of  the  feast 
have  been  disposed  of. 

1  Both  of  them  men  who  held  high  places  in  the  republic,  and 
were  worthy  of  its  better  days.  The  father  was  distinguished  as 
an  orator,  and  both  father  and  son  were  among  the  foremost  of 
their  respective  times  in  solid  learning  and  in  elegant  culture. 


84  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

Lucius  Crassus^  had  a  more  copious  flow  of  lan- 
guage, with  no  less  humor;  yet  the  reputation  of 
the  Catuli  as  good  talkers  was  fully  equal  to  his. 
Caesar,  the  brother  ^  of  the  elder  Catulus,  surpassed 
them  all  in  wit  and  humor,  so  that  when  he  spoke 
in  the  courts  in  his  conversational  way  he  was  more 
efficient  than  other  advocates  with  their  set  speeches. 
On  all  these  matters  we  must  bestow  labor,  if 
we  aim  at  what  is  becoming  in  every  detail  of 
conduct. 

I      Let  then  conversation,  in  which   the   followers 
!  of  Socrates  are  pre-eminent,  be  easy,  and  by  no 
means  jjrolix;  let  politeness  be  always  observed, 
i  nor  must  one  debar  others  from  their  part,  as  if  he 
had  sole  right  to  be  heard ;  but,  as  in  all  things 
else,  so  in  social  intercouse,  let  him  regard  alterna- 
;  tion  as  not  unfair.     Then,  too,  let  him  at  the  outset 
I  consider  on  what  sort  of  subjects  he   is   talking ; 
I  if  on  serious  things,  let  him  show  due  gravity ;  on 
I  amusing,  grace.     Especially  let  him  take  heed  lest 
I  his  conversation  betray  some  defect  in  his  moral 
j  character,  which  is  most  frequently  the  case  when 
the   absent  are   expressly  ridiculed   or  spoken   of 
slanderously  and  malignly,  with  the  purpose  of  in- 
juring their  reputation.     For  the  most  part,  conver- 

1  The  greatest  orator  of  his  age.  He  was  in  his  prime  in 
Cicero's  boyhood. 

2  They  had  the  same  mother ;  their  fathers  were  of  different 
gentes,  —  Catulus  being  of  a  plebeian,  Caesar  of  a  patrician 
gens. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  85 

sation  relates  to  private  affairs,  or  politics,  or  the 
theory  and  practice  of  the  arts.  Pains  must  then 
be  taken  that,  if  the  conversation  begins  to  wander 
off  to  other  subjects,  it  be  recalled  to  these.  Yet 
reference  must  be  had  to  the  persons  present;  for 
we  are  not  all  interested  in  the  same  things,  at  all 
times,  and  in  a  similar  degree.  We  should  always 
observe,  also,  the  length  of  time  to  which  the  pleas- 
ure of  conversation  extends,  and  as  there  was  reason 
for  beginning,  so  let  there  be  a  limit  at  which  there 
shall  be  an  ending. 

38.  But  as  it  is  a  most  fitting  rule  for  the  entire 
life,  that  we  shun  passion,  by  which  I  mean  emo- 
tions that  transcend  the  control  of  reason,  so  conver- 
sation ought  to  be  free  from  emotions  of  this  kind, 
that  thus  no  anger  or  inordinate  desire  may  show 
itself,  and  that  at  the  same  time  there  be  no  appear- 
ance of  listlessness,  or  indifference,  or  anything  of  the 
kind.  We  must  also  take  special  care  to  preserve 
the  bearing  of  respect  and  esteem  for  those  with 
whom  we  converse.  There  is  sometimes  occasion 
for  administering  reproof,  in  which  we  must  per- 
haps use  a  greater  stress  of  voice  and  a  keener 
severity  of  diction ;  indeed,  this  may  need  to  be 
carried  so  far  as  to  make  us  seem  under  the  influ- 
ence of  anger.  But  we  shall  have  recourse  to  this 
kind  of  oral  castigation,  as  to  the  cautery  and  the 
knife,  rarely  and  reluctantly,  nor  ever,  unless  it 
be  necessary  in  the  absence  of  any  other  remedy. 
And  at  all  events  let  anger  be  kept  far  away ;  for 


86  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

with  anger  nothing  can  be  done  rightly,  nothing 
judiciously.  But  in  most  cases  we  can  administer 
mild  reproof,  yet  combined  with  earnestness,  so 
that  at  once  due  severity  may  be  employed  and 
invective  avoided.  Moreover,  the  very  bitterness 
which  our  reproof  carries  with  it  should  be  made 
to  appear  as  designed  for  the  benefit  of  the  person 
reproved.  It  is  right,  also,  even  in  our  disputes 
with  those  the  most  hostile  to  us,  and  even  though 
we  receive  from  them  unmerited  reproach,  to  main- 
tain a  serious  bearing  indeed,  but  to  exclude  irri- 
tation. For  what  is  done  under  some  degree  of 
excitement  cannot  be  done  with  self-respect  or  with 
the  approval  of  bystanders.  Still  further,  it  is  in 
bad  taste  to  talk  about  one's  self,  especially  to  lie 
about  one's  self,  and  with  the  derision  of  the  au- 
dience to  play  the  part  of  the  Braggart  Soldier.^ 

39.  Since  I  want  to  make  a  thorough  discussion 
of  everything  involving  the  question  of  duty,  —  for 
such  is  my  purpose,  —  I  ought  to  say  also  what 
sort  of  a  house,  in  my  opinion,  should  beloug  to  a 
man  in  high  office  and  conspicuous  station.  The 
ultimate  end,  of  course,  is  convenience,  and  to  this 
the  plan  of  the  building  should  be  adapted,  while 
at  the  same  time  care  should  be  taken  as  regards 

1  Militem  .gloriosum.  Miles  Gloriosus  is  the  title  of  a  comedy 
of  Plautus,  in  which  Pyrgopolineces,  a  military  braggadocio,  is 
the  principal  personage.  The  character  was  a  favorite  one  with 
the  Roman  comedians  and  stage-lovers.  Thraso,  in  Terence's 
Eunuchiis,  plays  this  part  so  well,  as  to  have  enriched  the  Eng- 
lish language  with  the  adjective  thrasonical. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  87 

stateliness  of  appearance  and  amplitude  of  accom- 
modation. We  are  told  that  it  redounded  to  the 
honor  of  Cneius  Octavius,  the  first  of  his  family 
that  was  made  consul,  that  he  had  built  a  splendid 
house,  one  in  all  respects  magnificent,  on  the  Pala- 
tine Hill,i  which,  being  seen  by  the  people  at  large, 
was  thought  to  have  procured  for  the  owner,  belong- 
ing to  a  family  that  had  before  held  no  high  office, 
the  votes  that  raised  him  to  the  consulship.  Tliis 
house  Scaurus  demolished,  and  built  where  it 
stood  an  addition  to  his  own  house.  And  so  the 
former  of  the  two,  first  of  his  race,  brought  the 
consulship  into  his  house ;  the  latter,  the  son  of  a 
man  of  distinguished  eminence  and  renown,  bore 
home  to  his  enlarged  house  on  the  same  spot  not 
only  failure  as  a  candidate  for  the  consulship,  but 
disgrace  and  disaster.^  In  truth,  high  standing  in 
the  community  should  be  adorned  by  a  house,  not 
sought  wholly  from  a  house ;  nor  should  the  owner 
be  honored  by  the  house,  but  the  house  by  the 
owner.  Moreover,  as  in  matters  of  various  kinds 
one  must  take  account  not  of  himself  alone,  but  of 
others  also,  so  in  the  house  of  a  distinguished  man, 

1  In  PalcUio,  —  the  Palatium  was  the  most  fashionable  quarter 
on  the  Palatine  Hill. 

'^  Marcus  Aemilius  Scaurus,  son  of  the  Scaurus  named  in  §  22, 
Vfhen  candidate  for  the  consulship,  was  accused  of  extortion  in 
the  government  of  Sardinia,  and  though  undoubtedly  guilty,  was 
defended  by  Cicero,  and  was  acquitted,  but  failed  of  election. 
Two  years  afterward  he  was  accused  of  bribery,  condemned,  and 
banished. 


88  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

into  which  many  guests  are  to  be  received,  and 
a  multitude  of  men  of  all  kinds  are  to  be  admitted, 
care  must  be  taken  to  have  it  roomy.  Under  other 
circumstances  a  very  large  house  is  apt  to  bring 
discredit  to  its  owner  if  it  have  the  air  of  loneli- 
ness, especially  if  under  some  former  owner  it  used 
to  be  thronged.  For  it  is  offensive  to  have  it  said 
by  those  who  pass  by,  — 

"  0  ancient  house  !     Ah,  how  unlike  a  lord 
Now  lords  it  over  thee  !  "  ^ 

which  in  these  times  may  be  said  about  many  a 
house.  But  special  care  should  be  taken,  if  you 
build  yourself,  not  to  go  beyond  reasonable  limits 
in  costliness  and  splendor.  In  such  extravagance 
great  mischief  is  done  by  mere  example ;  for  very 
many  are  anxious,  especially  in  this  direction,  to 
follow  the  example  of  distinguished  men.  Thus 
who  imitates  the  virtue  of  Lucius  Lucullus,  a  man 
of  the  highest  character?  But  how  many  have 
imitated  the  magnificence  of  his  villas !  ^  Here 
there  certainly  is  need  of  a  limit,  and  of  a  return 
to  a  moderate  standard.     This  same  standard  ought 

1  From  an  unknown  poet. 

^  Lucullus  would  have  transmitted  to  coming  time  a  great 
name  as  the  conqueror  of  Mithridates,  had  he  not  become  still 
more  famous  by  magnificence,  ostentation,  and  extravagance  in  his 
villas,  gardens,  fish-ponds,  and  entertainments.  A  single  supper 
is  said  to  have  cost  him  a  sura  equivalent  in  silver  to  about  ten 
thousand  dollars,  in  value  to  at  least  five  times  as  much.  From 
him  is  derived  the  word  lucullite,  both  French  and  English, 
denoting  a  devotee  of  luxury. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  89 

to  be  applied  to  the  entire  habit  and  style  of  living. 
But  enough  on  this  bead. 

In  whatever  we  do  there  are  three  things  to  bei 
endeavored.  The  first  is  that  impulse  be  subser-j 
vient  to  reason,  than  whicb  there  is  no  more  fitting! 
rule  for  the  observance  of  duty.  In  the  next  place, 
we  should  make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  object  in  hand,  so  that  we  may  take 
upon  ourselves  neither  more  nor  less  care  and  labor 
than  the  case  demands.  The  third  rule  is  that  the 
outlay  for  show  and  parade  be  brought  within  mod- 
erate limits ;  and  those  limits  are  best  kept  when 
we  maintain  the  becomingness  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken,  and  suffer  ourselves  not  to  go 
beyond  it.  Yet  of  these  three  the  most  excellent 
is  that  impulse  should  be  subservient  to  reason. 

40.  In  the  next  place,  I  am  to  speak  of  the  or- 
der of  our  doings  and  the  fit  arrangement  of  time, 
which  are  comprehended  in  the  science  which  the 
Greeks  term  evra^lav,  yet  not  in  its  sense  of  mod- 
eration (which  involves  the  idea  of  measure  or 
quantity),  but  in  that  sense  of  evra^ia  ^  which  im- 
plies the  observance  of  order  in  time  and  place. 
Yet  in  favor  of  our  calling  this  moderation,  we 
might  cite  the  definition  of  the  Stoics,  who  say 
that  moderation  is  the  art  of  putting  in  the  right 
place  whatever  is  done  or  said.  Thus  the  import 
of  order  and  that  of  collocation  seem  identical  with 

^  This  word  is  used  by  Xenophon  in  the  sense  of  order  ;  by 
Thucydides,  in  that  of  moderation. 


90  Cicero  cle  OJJiciis. 

it ;  for  they  define  order  to  be  the  putting  of  things 
in  fit  and  suitable  places,  and  say  that  the  fit  time 
is  the  place  of  an  action,  —  the  fit  time  for  an 
action,  which  we  call  occasion,  being  called  in  Greek 
evKaipia}  Thus  it  is  that  moderation,  which  I 
interpret  as  I  have  said,  comes  to  denote  skill  in 
determining  the  fitness  of  times  for  specific  acts. 
But  the  same  definition  may  be  given  of  prudence, 
of  which  I  treated  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  essay .^ 
Here,  however,  our  subject  is  regularity,  self- 
control,  and  virtues  of  that  kind.  What  belongs 
peculiarly  to  prudence  has  been  spoken  of  in  its 
proper  place ;  but  of  the  class  of  virtues  which  has 
of  late  occupied  our  attention,  it  remains  for  me  to 

1  Opportuneness. 

2  This  passage,  as  it  treats  of  the  definition  of  words,  can 
hardly  be  understood  without  the  use  of  the  specific  Latin  words, 
both  defining  and  defined.  I  therefore  give  here  a  more  literal 
translation:  "  I  am  to  speak  of  the  order  of  our  doings  and  the 
fit  arrangement  of  time,  which  are  comprehended  iu  the  science 
which  the  Greeks  term  eiira^la,  —  not  in  that  meaning  of  the  word 
which  we  terra  modcstia  in  which  modus  is  implied,  but  in  that 
sense  which  denotes  the  order  of  time  and  place.  Yet  in  favor 
of  our  translating  the  word  (evra^ia)  modestia,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  Stoics  define  modestia  as  the  art  of  putting  whatever  is  done  or 
said  in  the  right  place.  Thus  ordo  and  coUocatio  seem  to  have  the 
same  import  with  it.  For  they  define  ordo  as  the  putting  of 
things  in  fit  and  suitable  places  ;  but  they  say  that  the  fit  time 
is  the  place  of  an  action,  —  the  fit  time  being  called  in  Greek 
e^Kaipla,  in  Latin,  occasio.  Thus  it  is  that  modestia,  inter- 
preted as  I  have  said,  comes  to  denote  skill  in  determining  the 
fitness  of  time  for  specific  acts.  But  the  same  definition  may 
be  given  of  prudentia,  of  which  I  treated  in  the  early  part  of 
this  essay." 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  91 

speak  of  what  may  fall  under  the  head  of  modesty 
and  of  regard  for  the  approval  of  those  among 
whom  we  live. 

Such,  then,  should  be  the  order  applied  to  what- 
ever we  do,  that,  as  in  a  coherent  speech,  so  in  the 
life,  all  things  should  be  fitted  to  one  another,  and 
in  harmony  with  one  another.  For  it  is  disgraceful 
and  exceedingly  blameworthy,  on  a  serious  subject 
to  introduce  the  kind  of  talk  that  belongs  to  a  fes- 
tive occasion,  or  any  wanton  strain  of  utterance. 
When  Pericles  had  Sophocles  for  a  colleague  in 
military  command,  and  they  had  met  on  their 
common  official  duty,  and,  a  handsome  boy  hap- 
pening to  pass  by,  Sophocles  said,  "  Oh,  Peri- 
cles, what  a  beautiful  boy!"  Pericles  very  fittingly 
answered,  "  It  becomes  a  commander,  Sophocles,  to 
have  his  eyes  as  abstinent  ^  as  his  hands."  ^  Yet 
had  Sophocles  said  the  same  at  a  trial  of  skill 
among  athletes,  he  would  have  incurred  no  just 
censure.  So  great  is  the  significance  of  both  place 
and  time.  Thus,  if  one  who  is  going  to  plead  a 
cause  should,  on  a  journey  or  in  walking,  be  self- 
absorbed  in  meditation,  or  if  at  such  a  time  he  be 
wrapt  in  earnest  thought  on  any  other  subject, 
he  cannot  be  blamed ;  but  if  he  present  this  appear- 
ance on  a  festive  occasion,  he  would  be  regarded 
as  ill-bred,  because  unmindful  of  the  fitness  of  time. 
Such  things,  indeed,  as  are  at  a  very  great  remove 
from  propriety,  like  singing  in  the  forum,  or  any 

1  From  lust.  2  From  bribes. 


92  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

other  gross  misconduct,  are  readily  perceived,  nor 
do  they  stand  in  special  need  of  admonition  and 
direction.  But  one  should  avoid  with  peculiar  care 
offences  that  seem  small,  and  cannot  be  appreciated 
by  the  many.  As  in  stringed  instruments  or  flutes 
an  expert  detects  discord,  however  slight,  so  we 
should  in  our  lives  be  on  the  watch  for  even  the 
least  discord,  and  all  the  more  so,  inasmuch  as  the 
harmony  of  actions  is  greater  and  better  than  that 
of  musical  notes. 

41.  Therefore,  as  in  stringed  instruments  the  ears 
of  musicians  detect  the  slightest  falsity  of  tone,  so 
shall  we,  if  we  are  willing  to  be  keen  and  careful 
observers  of  faults,  often  learn  great  things  from 
small.  From  the  glance  of  the  eyes,  from  the 
expansion  or  contraction  of  the  brows,  from  depres- 
sion, from  cheerfulness,  from  laughter,  from  the 
tone  of  the  voice,  from  silence,  from  a  higher  or 
lower  key  of  utterance,  and  other  similar  tokens,  we 
may  easily  determine  which  of  the  greater  things 
that  they  typify  are  fittingly  done  and  which  of 
them  are  at  variance  with  duty  and  nature.  Nor  is 
it  unsuitable  in  matters  of  this  sort  to  judge  of  the 
character  of  our  actions  by  looking  at  others,  so 
that  we  may  ourselves  avoid  whatever  is  unbecom- 
ing in  them ;  for  it  is  the  case  —  I  know  not  how 
—  that  we  perceive  any  delinquency  more  readily 
in  others  than  in  ourselves.  Therefore  those  pupils 
whose  faults  their  masters  mimic  in  order  to  cure 
them  are  most  easily  corrected.     'Not  yet  is  it  out 


Cicero  cle  Ojfficiis.  93 

of  place,  before  forming  our  judgment  in  doubtful 
cases,  to  consult  men  of  superior  natural  intelli- 
gence or  those  who  have  become  wise  by  expe- 
rience, and  to  ask  them  what  they  think  as  to  any 
matters  in  which  the  question  of  duty  is  involved. 
Indeed,  most  persons  are  wont  to  be  drawn  in 
nearly  the  direction  in  which  their  nature  leads 
them,  and  we  want  to  learn  of  men,  not  merely 
what  they  say,  but  what  they  think,  and  also  why.^ 
As  painters,  and  sculptors,  and  poets,  too,  like  to 
have  their  work  pass  under  review  by  the  people, 
that  if  any  fault  is  found  by  a  considerable  number 
of  persons  it  may  be  corrected,  and  as  they  earn- 
estly inquire  both  of  themselves  and  of  others 
wherein  the  fault  consists,  so  for  us  there  are  many 
things  to  be  done  and  left  undone,  and  changed 
and  corrected  by  the  opinion  of  others.  Concern- 
ing things  done  by  established  custom  or  in  order 
to  obey  the  laws  of  the  state,  there  are  no  rules  to 
be  given ;  for  custom  and  law  are  themselves  rules. 
Nor  ought  any  one  to  be  led  into  the  error  of  sup- 
posing that,  if  Socrates  or  Aristippus  ^  did  or  said 

^  Which  we  may  learn  by  consulting  men  of  sound  discretion 
and  practical  experience. 

2  Aristippus  maintained  that  the  pleasure  that  lies  nearest, 
whatever  it  be,  is  to  be  sought  and  enjoyed,  and  that  man  has  no 
other  end  of  being.  The  records  that  remain  of  his  life  give 
reason  for  believing  that  his  personal  morality  was  not  so  bad  as 
his  philosophy  ;  yet  he  was  luxurious  in  his  habits,  boasted  of 
his  freedom  from  moral  restraints,  and  boasted  also  of  his  ability 
to  forego  without  a  sense  of  loss  the  indulgences  which  he  had 


94  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

anything  contrary  to  custom  and  to  legal  usage,  he 
may  regard  the  like  as  lawful  for  himself.  They 
obtained  this  liberty  by  superior  and  divine  endow- 
ments. The  entire  system  of  the  Cynics  also  is  to 
be  shunned ;  for  it  is  opposed  to  modesty,  without 
which  there  can  be  neither  right  nor  honor.  But 
we  ought  to  respect  and  revere  those  whose  life  has 
been  passed  in  the  transaction  of  honorable  and 
important  affairs,  who  have  a  right  feeling  toward 
the  state,  and  have  rendered  or  are  still  rendering 
it  service,  no  less  than  those  in  civil  office  or  mili- 
tary command ;  to  pay  great  deference  to  old  age ; 
to  yield  precedence  to  the  magistrates ;  to  make  a 
distinction  between  citizens  and  foreigners,  and  in 
the  case  of  foreigners,  between  those  who  come  in 
a  private  and  those  who  come  in  a  public  capacity. 
In  short,  not  to  treat  of  particulars,  we  ought  to 
cherish,  defend,  preserve,  the  common  harmony  and 
fellowship  of  the  whole  human  race. 

42.  Now  as  to  the  trades  and  modes  of  getting 
gain  that  are  to  be  regarded  as  respectable,^  and 
those  that  are  to  be  deemed  mean  and  vulgar,  the 
general  opinion  is  as  follows :  In  the  first  place, 
those  callings  are  held  in  disesteem  that  come  into 
I  collision  with  the  ill  will  of  men,  as  that  of  tax- 
gatherers,  as  that  of  usurers.     The  callings  of  hired 

made  habitual.  He  was  a  hearer,  not  to  say  a  pupil,  of  Socrates, 
whose  eccentricities  were  abnormal  in  the  direction  of  a  severer 
type  of  virtue. 

1  Liberales,  worthy  of  a  free  man. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  95 

laborers,  and  of  all  who  are  paid  for  their  mere 
work  and  not  for  skill,  are  ungenteel  ^  and  vulgar ; 
for  their  wages  are  given  for  menial  service.     Those 
who  buy  to  sell  again  as  soon  as  they  can  are  to  be 
accounted  as  vulgar ;  for  they  can  make  no  profit 
except  by  a  certain  amount  of  falsehood,  and  noth- 
ing is  meaner  than  falsehood.     All  mechanics  are 
engaged  in  vulgar  business ;  for  a  workshop  can  have  , 
nothing  respectable  about  it.     Least  of  all  can  we  ! 
speak  well  of  the  trades  that  minister  to  sensual  \ 
pleasures,  —  i 

"Fishmongers,  butchers,  cooks,  poulterers,  and  fishermen," 

as  Terence  says.  Add,  if  you  please,  to  this  list 
perfumers,  ballet-dancers,  and  the  whole  tribe  of 
dice-players.  The  professions  which  require  greater 
skill  and  are  of  no  small  benefit  to  the  commu- 
nity, such  as  medicine,  architecture,  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth  in  liberal  studies,  are  respectable  for 
those  whose  rank  they  suit.^     Commerce,^  if  on  a 

1  niiberales,  unworthy  of  a  free  man. 

2  For  men  of  senatorial,  or  even  equestrian  rank,  these  employ- 
ments, if  practised  for  gain,  were  regarded  as  derogating  from 
respectability. 

8  The  Romans  in  general,  till  near  the  last  days  of  the  republic, 
despised  commerce,  and  though  they  depended  for  grain  in  great 
part  on  Sicily  and  remoter  provinces,  it  was  long  before  they 
brought  grain  in  their  own  ships.  In  Cicero's  time,  however, 
it  was  the  reproach  of  the  equestrian  order  that  many  members  of 
it,  tired  of  genteel  poverty,  were  enriching  themselves  by  com- 
merce ;  and  Cicero,  as  a  parvenu  in  the  Senate,  was  weak  enough 
to  fall  in  with  this  foolish  prejudice. 


96 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


\  small  scale,  is  to  be  regarded  as  vulgar ;  but  if  large 
and  rich,  importing  much  from  all  quarters,  and 
making  extensive  sales  without  fraud,  it  is  not  so 

j  very  discreditable.  Nay,  it  may  justly  claim  the 
highest  regard,  if  the  merchant,  satiated,  or  rather 
contented  with  his  profits,  instead  of  any  longer 

'  leaving  the  sea  for  a  port,  ^  betakes  himself  from 

I  the  port  itself  to  an  estate  in  the  country.  But 
of  all  means  of  acquiring  gain  nothing  is  better 

I  than  agriculture,  nothing  more  productive,  nothing 
more  pleasant,  nothing  more  worthy  of  a  man  of 
liberal  mind.  Since  I  have  said  enough  of  tliis  in 
my  Cato  Major,  you  will  find  there  what  belongs  to 
the  subject. 

43.  I  think  that  I  have  sufficiently  expounded 
the  way  in  which  specific  duties  are  derived  under 
the  several  divisions  of  the  right.  But  as  to  the 
very  things  that  are  right  there  may  be  sometimes 
a  question  as  to  alternatives,^  of  two  right  things 
which  is  the  more  imperatively  right,  —  a  subject 
omitted  by  Panaetius.  Since  all  that  is  right  is 
deduced  from  four  divisions  of  virtue,  the  first, 
knowledge ;  the  second,  social  obligation ;  the  third, 
elevation  of  mind ;  the  fourth,  moderation,  —  these 
must  of  necessity  be  often  brought  into  comparison 
with  one  another  in  determining  a  specific  duty. 


*  Merchants,  engaged  in  traffic  from  port  to  port,  owned  and 
commanded  the  ships  that  carried  their  goods. 

2  Latin,  contentio  et  comparatio,  —  stretching  two  objects  side 
by  side,  and  determining  their  comparative  length.     See  §  17. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  97 

In  my  opinion  the  duties  derived  from  the  rela-] 
tions  of  society  have  a  closer  adaptation  to  nature  ^ 
than  those  which  are  derived  from  knowledge,  as| 
may  be  established  by  this  argument,  —  that  should 
such  a  life  fall  to  the  lot  of  a  wise  man  that  in  the  ', 
full  abundance  of  all  things  and  in  entire  leisure 
he  could  consider  and  contemplate  within  his  own 
mind  wliatever  is  worth  knowing,  yet,  were  his  soli- 
tude such  that  he  could  never  see  a  human  face,  he 
would  rather  die.     Then,  too,  the  chief  of  all  the 
virtues,  that  wisdom  which  the  Greeks  term  cro(j>iav  ^ 
(for  prudence,  which  the  Greeks  call  ^povrjcnv^  has 
another,  narrower  meaning,  namely,  the  knowledge 
of  things  to  be  sought  and  shunned),  —  the  wisdom 
which  I  have  designated  as  chief  of  the  virtues  is 
the  knowledge  of  things  divine  and  human,  which 
comprises  the   mutual  fellowship  and  communion 
of  gods  and  men.     But  if  wisdom  is  the  greatest  of  , 
the  virtues,  as  it  undoubtedly  is,  it  follows  of  neces- 
sity that  the  duty  derived  from  this  fellowship  and  '  ^'«  ^^ 
communion  is  the  greatest   of  duties.     Moreover,! 
the   knowledge   and   contemplation   of  nature  are' 

1  A  Stoic  idea.  The  Stoics  derived  all  duty  from  nature,  — 
the  nature  of  things,  the  nature  of  man.  They  therefore  made 
nature  the  sole  test  of  duty,  and  (if  I  may  so  express  what  in 
less  awkward  phrase  would  be  less  clear)  regarded  the  greater 
or  less  naturalness  of  a  duty  as  the  criterion  of  its  relative 
importance. 

2  'Zo<pla  primarily  meant  sagacity,  but  is  commonly  employed 
to  denote  wisdom  in  its  broadest  sense. 

3  ^povrjaii  means  prude7icc,  in  the  sense  of  practical  wisdom. 

7 


98  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

somehow  defective  and  imperfect,  unless  they  lead 
to  some  result  in  action ;  and  this  appropriate  action 
is  best  recognized  in  care  for  the  well-being  of  man- 
kind. The  virtue  from  which  it  springs  belongs, 
then,  to  the  sodality  of  the  human  race,  and  is 
therefore  to  be  preferred  to  knowledge.  That  this 
is  so,  every  excellently  good  man  shows  and  indi- 
cates in  very  deed.  For  who  is  there  so  deeply 
interested  in  penetrating  and  understanding  the 
nature  of  things,  that  if,  while  he  is  handling  and 
contemplating  subjects  most  worthy  of  being  under- 
stood, there  is  suddenly  announced  to  him  some 
danger  and  peril  of  his  country  in  which  he  can 
render  aid  and  succor,  will  not  abandon  and  fling 
away  his  learned  pursuits,  even  though  he  imagines 
that  he  can  number  the  stars  and  find  out  the 
dimensions  of  the  universe  ?  And  he  would  do  the 
same  thing  in  the  business  or  in  the  peril  of  a  father 
or  a  friend.  It  is  thus  seen  that  the  duties  of  jus- 
tice which  concern  the  interests  of  our  fellow-men, 
than  which  nothing  ought  to  be  more  sacred  to  man, 
are  to  have  precedence  over  the  pursuits  and  duties 
of  knowledge. 

44.  Now  those  whose  pursuits  and  whose  entire 
life  have  been  devoted  to  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge, have  nevertheless  not  withdrawn  from  the 
obligation  of  contributing  to  the  advantage  and 
benefit  of  mankind;  for  they  have  so  instructed 
many  as  to  make  them  better  citizens  and  more 
useful  to  their  respective  states.     Thus  Lysis,  the 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  99 

Pythagorean,  taught  Epaminondas  of  Thebes,  and 
Plato  was  the  preceptor  of  Dion  of  Syracuse,  and 
many  others  have  had  numerous  pupils.  I  myself,  j 
in  whatever  I  have  contributed  to  the  well-being  of 
the  state  (if  I  have  indeed  contributed  anything), 
entered  upon  the  public  service  well  furnished  in 
point  of  teachers  and  teaching.  Nor  is  it  only 
when  these  men  are  living  and  present  that  they 
instruct  and  teach  those  desirous  of  learning ;  but 
they  follow  up  this  same  work  even  after  death  by 
the  records  of  their  knowledge  and  wisdom.  For 
there  is  no  topic  omitted  by  them  that  could  relate 
to  laws,  to  morals,  to  the  government  of  the  state ; 
so  that  they  seem  to  have  bestowed  their  leisure  on 
our  business.^  Thus  the  very  men  who  are  devoted 
to  the  pursuit  of  learning  and  wisdom  employ  their 
intelligence  and  practical  discretion  chiefly  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  Therefore  it  is  better  to  speak 
fluently,  if  wisely,  than  to  think,  no  matter  with 
M'hat  acuteness  of  comprehension,  if  the  power  of 
expression  be  wanting ;  for  thought  begins  and 
ends  in  itself,  while  fluent  speech  extends  its  benefit 
to  those  with  whom  we  are  united  in  fellowship. 
Moreover,  as  swarms  of  bees  are  not  gathered  for 
the  purpose  of  making  honeycombs,  but  make 
honeycombs  because  they  are  gregarious  by  nature, 
so,  and  even  much  more,  men,  sociable  by  nature, 

^  Otium,  leisure;  negotium=nec  otium,  business,  —  a  favorite 
play  upon  words  with  Cicero,  wMch  we  have  not  the  means  of 
rendering  into  English. 


100  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

bring  to  their  union  skill  in  joint  and  associate 
action.  Therefore,  unless  the  virtue  which  consists 
in  caring  for  the  well-being  of  men,  that  is,  in  the 
maintenance  of  human  society,  accompany  the 
knowledge  of  things,  that  knowledge  must  seem 
isolated  and  meagre ;  and  equally  loftiness  of  mind, 
'  if  divorced  from  human  society  and  fellowship, 
'  becomes  mere  brutality  and  savageness.  Thus  it  is 
that  the  society  and  fellowship  of  men  transcend 
in  importance  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  Nor  is 
it  true,  as  some  say,  that  it  is  on  accoimt  of  the 
necessities  of  life — because  we  could  not  obtain  and 
accomplish  what  nature  demands  without  the  aid  of 
others  —  that  fellowship  and  society  were  initiated 
among  men,  but  that  if  everything  appertaining  to 
subsistence  and  comfortable  living  were  supplied 
for  us,  so  to  speak,  as  by  a  magic  wand,  every  per- 
son of  excelling  genius,  giving  up  all  other  concerns, 
would  occupy  himself  wholly  in  knowledge  and 
science.  It  is  not  so ;  for  man  in  that  case  would 
shun  solitude,  and  seek  companionship  in  his  pur- 
suits, —  would  want  now  to  teach,  then  to  learn ; 
now  to  hear,  then  to  speak.  Therefore  every  form 
of  duty  which  is  of  avail  for  the  union  of  men  and 
the  defence  of  society  is  to  be  regarded  as  of  higher 
obligation  than  the  duty  which  is  dependent  on 
abstract  study  and  science. 

45.  It  may  perchance  be  asked  whether  this 
human  fellowship  which  is  most  closely  allied  to 
nature  is  also  always  to  have  the  precedence  over 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  101 

modesty  and  decency.  I  think  not.  For  there  are 
certain  things,  some  so  repulsive,  some  so  scanda- 
lous, that  a  wise  man  would  not  do  them  even 
to  save  his  country.  Posidonius^  has  brought 
together  a  great  many  of  these  things,  some  of 
them  so  foul,  so  indecent,  that  it  would  be  offensive 
even  to  name  them.  These  things,  then,  one  will 
not  do  for  the  sake  of  the  state,  nor  yet  will  the 
state  demand  that  they  should  be  done  for  its  sake. 
But  the  question  is  the  more  easily  settled,  inas- 
much as  there  cannot  come  any  crisis  in  which  it 
can  be  for  the  interest  of  the  state  that  a  wise  man 
should  do  any  of  these  things. 

This,  then,  may  be  regarded  as  settled,  that  in 
choosing  between  conflicting  duties  preference  must 
be  given  to  the  class  of  duties  essential  to  the 
maintenance  of  human  society.  Moreover,  consid- 
erate action  is  the  result  of  knowledge  and  pru- 
dence. It  therefore  follows  that  to  act  considerately 
is  of  more  worth  than  to  think  wisely.^  But  I  have 
said  enough  on  this  point ;  for  this  division  of  the 
subject  has  been  so  laid  open  that  it  cannot  be 
difficult  in  an  inquiry  as  to  duty  to  see  in  any 
particular  case  which  duty  is  to  be  regarded  as  of 
prime  and  which  of  secondary  obligation. 

1  Posidonius  was  a  Stoic,  a  disciple  of  Panaetius,  a  volumi- 
nous writer  on  an  encyclopedic  range  of  subjects.  Of  his  works 
only  fragments  are  preserved,  and  happily  the  catalogue  of  thiugs 
not  fit  to  be  done  has  left  no  traces  of  itself.  His  works  are 
known  chiefly  by  copious  extracts  made  by  Athenaeus. 

2  An  inference  so  illogical  as  to  seem  an  oversight. 


102  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

I  But  in  society  itself  there  are  gradations  of  duties, 
I  from  which  it  may  be  determined  what  one  owes 
in  any  individual  relation.  Thus  we  are  bound  in 
[obligation,  first  to  the  immortal  gods,  secondly  to 
1  our  country,  thu'dly  to  our  parents,  then  by  succes- 
sive degrees  to  other  persons  more  or  less  nearly 
'  related  to  us. 

From  this  brief  discussion  light  may  be  thrown, 
not  only  on  the  question  whether  certain  specific 
acts  are  right  or  wrong,  but  also,  when  the  choice 
lies  between  two  right  things,  on  the  question 
which  of  the  two  is  of  the  highest  obligation.  This 
last  head,  as  I  said  above,  is  omitted  by  Panaetius. 
Let  us  go  on  now  to  what  remains  of  the  subject. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  103 


BOOK   II. 

1.  I  THINK,  my  son  Marcus,  that  it  has  been 
sufficiently  explained  in  my  first  book  how  duties 
are  to  be  derived  from  the  right,  and  from  each  of 
the  four  virtues  which  I  named  as  divisions  of  the 
right.  It  comes  next  in  order,  to  treat  of  those 
kinds  of  duties  that  belong  to  the  adornment  of  life 
and  the  command  of  its  utilities,  to  influence  and 
resources  of  every  description.  Under  this  head 
I  have  said  that  the  inquiry  is,  first,  what  is  expe- 
dient and  what  inexpedient,  and  then,  of  expedient 
things  which  is  the  more  expedient,  which  the 
most  expedient.  I  shall  proceed  to  the  discussion 
of  these  things,  after  saying  a  few  words  concerning 
my  design  and  method  in  writing  on  philosophical 
subjects. 

Although,  indeed,  my  books  have  roused  not  a 
few  to  the  desire  not  only  of  reading,  but  of  writ- 
ing, still  I  sometimes  fear  that  the  mere  name  of 
philosophy  may  be  offensive  to  certain  worthy  men, 
and  that  they  may  marvel  that  I  spend  so  much 
labor  and  time  upon  it.  In  truth,  so  long  as  the 
state  was  administered  by  men  of  its  own  choice, 
I  bestowed  upon  it  all  my  care  and  thought.     But 


104  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

when  all  things  were  held  under  the  absolute  sway 
of  one  man,  and  there  was  no  longer  room  for 
advice  or  influence,  while  at  the  same  time  I  had 
lost  my  associates  in  the  guardianship  of  the  state, 
men  of  the  highest  eminence,  I  did  not  abandon 
myself  to  melancholy,  which  woiild  have  consumed 
me  had  I  not  resisted  it,  nor  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  sensual  pleasures  unworthy  of  a  philosopher. 
And  oh  that  the  state  had  continued  in  the  con- 
dition in  which  it  recommenced  its  life,^  and  had 
not  fallen  into  the  hands  of  men  desirous  not  so 
much  of  reforming  as  of  revolutionizing  its  constitu- 
tion !  In  that  case,  in  the  first  place,  as  I  used  to 
do  when  the  state  stood  on  a  firm  basis,  I  should 
expend  more  labor  in  pleading  than  in  writing ;  and 
in  the  next  place,  I  should  commit  to  writing  not 
the  subjects  now  in  hand,  but  my  arguments  before 
the  courts,  as  I  have  often  done.  But  when  the 
state,  on  which  all  my  care,  thought,  labor,  used  to 
be  expended,  had  utterly  ceased  to  be,  my  forensic 
and  senatorial  literature  was  of  course  silenced. 
Yet  since  my  mind  could  not  be  unemployed,  hav- 
ing been  conversant  with  these  studies  from  my 
early  days,  I  thought  that  my  chagrin  could  be 
most  honorably  laid  aside  if  I  betook  myself  to 
philosophy,  to  which  I  devoted  a  large  part  of  my 
youth  as  a  learner,  while   after  I  began  to  hold 

^  After  the  assassination  of  Caesar,  when  for  a  very  little  while 
there  seemed  some  hope  of  a  return  to  republican  institutions  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  name. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  105 

important  offices  and  gave  myself  wholly  to  the 
service  of  the  state,  philosophy  had  as  much  of  my 
time  as  was  not  taken  up  by  the  claims  of  my 
friends  and  the  public.  Yet  this  time  was  all  con- 
sumed in  reading ;  I  had  no  leisure  for  writing. 

2.  I  seem,  then,  in  the  severest  calamities  to 
have  attained  at  least  this  good  fortune,  that  I  am 
able  to  commit  to  writing  subjects  not  sufficiently 
familiar  to  my  fellow-countrymen,  and  yet  pre- 
eminently worthy  of  their  cognizance.  For  what, 
in  the  name  of  the  gods,  is  more  desirable  than 
wisdom  ?  What  more  to  be  prized  ?  What  better  ? 
What  more  worthy  of  man  ?  It  is  the  seekers  of  this, 
then,  who  are  called  philosophers ;  nor  is  philosophy, 
if  you  undertake  to  translate  it,  anything  else  than 
the  love  of  wisdom.  But  wisdom,  as  defined  by 
the  ancients,  is  the  knowledge  of  things  divine  and 
human,  and  of  the  causes  by  which  these  things  are 
kept  in  harmony.  I  cannot  well  understand  what 
he  who  blames  the  pursuit  of  this  knowledge  can 
regard  as  commendable.  For  if  gratification  of  the 
mind  and  repose  from  care  be  sought,  what  pleas- 
ure can  be  compared  with  the  pursuits  of  those  who 
are  always  searching  out  what  may  look  and  tend 
toward  a  good  and  happy  life  ?  Or  if  regard  is 
paid  to  consistency  of  character  and  to  virtue, 
either  this  is  the  science  ^  by  which  we  may  attain 
them,  or  there  is  none  at  all.  To  say  that  there 
is  no  science  of  these  greatest  of  human  interests 

^   Latin,  ars;  but  art  is  here  an  inadequate  rendering. 


106  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

when  there  are  none  of  the  smallest  concerns 
that  have  not  their  science,  is  the  language  of  men 
who  talk  without  thinking,  and  who  deceive  them- 
selves in  matters  of  the  highest  moment.  Then, 
too,  if  there  is  any  instruction  in  virtue,  where 
should  it  be  sought,  when  you  turn  away  from  this 
department  of  learning  ?  But  these  things  are  usu- 
ally discussed  with  greater  precision  in  urging  read- 
ers to  the  study  of  philosophy,  as  I  have  done  in 
another  treatise,^  My  present  purpose  was  simply 
to  say  why,  deprived  of  opportunities  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  state,  I  chose  this  department  of  study 
above  all  others. 

It  is  objected  to  me,  and  that  too  by  educated 
and  learned  men,  that  I  seem  not  to  act  consist- 
ently, when  I  say  that  nothing  can  be  known  with 
certainty,  and  yet  am  accustomed  to  give  my  opin- 
ion on  other  subjects,  and  am  now  setting  forth  the 
rules  of  duty.  I  could  wish  that  these  persons  had 
an  adequate  understanding  of  my  philosophical  doc- 
trine.^ For  I  am  not  one  of  those  whose  minds 
drift  about  in  uncertainty,  and  never  have  any 
definite  aim.  Indeed,  what  sort  of  an  intellect,  or 
rather  of  a  life,  would  remain,  if  fixed  principles 
not  only  of  reasoning,  but  of  conduct,  were  abol- 
ished ?  This  is  not  my  case ;  but  while  others  say 
that  some  things  are  certain,  some  doubtful,  so 
I,  differing  from  them,  call  some  things  probable, 
some  improbable.  What  is  there,  then,  that  can 
^  In  ffortcTisius.  2  That  of  the  New  Academy. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  107 

hinder  me  from  pursuing  those  tilings  that  seem  to 
me  probable,  rejecting  those  things  that  seem  im- 
probable, and,  while  I  shun  the  arrogance  of  positive 
assertion,  escaping  the  recklessness  which  is  at  the 
farthest  remove  from  wisdom  ?  All  opinions  are 
controverted  by  our  school,  on  the  ground  that  this 
very  probability  cannot  be  brought  to  light  unless 
by  a  comparison  of  the  arguments  on  both  sides. 
These  things,  however,  are,  as  I  think,  expounded 
with  sufficient  care  in  my  Academics.  But  though 
you,  my  Cicero,  are  becoming  versed  in  the  most 
ancient^  and  noble  of  philosophies,  under  the 
guidance  of  Cratippus,  who  bears  the  closest  resem- 
blance to  the  illustrious  founders  of  the  school, 
I  am  unwilling  that  these  speculations  of  mine, 
nearly  allied  to  those  of  your  school,  should  be 
unknown  to  you.  But  let  us  now  take  up  the 
plan  proposed  for  our  discussion. 

3.  At  the  outset  I  proposed  for  the  full  discus- 
sion of  duty  five  divisions,  two  relating  to  what  is 
becoming  and  right;  two  to  the  conveniences  of 
life,  resources,  influence,  wealth ;  the  fifth  to  the 
determination  of  our  choice,  whenever  the  right  and 
the  expedient  might  seem  mutually  repugnant. 
The  divisions  relating  to  the  right,  which  I  would 
have  you  thoroughly  understand,  are  finished.     This 

1  Cratippus  was  a  Peripatetic,  and  thus  regarded  Aristotle  as 
his  master;  but  as  Aristotle  derived  much  of  his  philosophy  from 
Plato,  and  Plato,  much  or  all  of  his  from  Socrates,  Cicero,  with 
more  rhetorical  aptness  than  literal  truth,  antedates  the  school  of 
which  his  son  was  the  pupil. 


108  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

of  which  I  am  now  going  to  treat  is  what  is  termed 
expediency,  with  reference  to  which  custom  has 
turned  out  of  the  right  way,  and  has  been  gradually 
brought  to  the  point  of  separating  the  right  from 
the  expedient,  and  of  maintaining  that  what  is  not 
expedient  may  be  right,  and  what  is  not  right, 
expedient,  than  which  there  could  be  no  doctrine 
more  pernicious  to  human  well-being.  There  are, 
indeed,  philosophers  of  the  very  highest  authority 
who  on  strict  and  tenable  grounds  make  a  distinc- 
tion in  theory  between  three  several  kinds  of  excel- 
lence, which  yet,  as  they  admit,  are  inseparable  in 
their  nature;  for  whatever  is  just  they  regard  as 
expedient,  and  likewise  what  is  right  as  just. 
Hence  it  follows  that  whatever  is  right  is  also 
expedient.^  Those  who  imagine  that  the  distinc- 
tion is  not  in  mere  theory,  but  in  fact,  often 
admiring  adroit  and  crafty  men,  take  roguery  for 
wisdom.  Their  mistake  ought  to  be  eliminated,  and 
the  universal  opinion  brought  over  to  the  hope  that 
men  may  learn  to  expect  the  attainment  of  what 
they  desire  by  right  purposes  and  honest  deeds,  not 
by  fraud  and  roguery. 

The  means  of  sustaining  human  life  are  in  part 
inanimate,  as  gold,  silver,  the  products  of  the  earth, 
and  other  things  of  that  sort ;  in  part,  living  beings 
that  have  their  own  instincts  and  appetites.  Of  these 
last  some  are  destitute  of  reason,  others  are  rational. 
Those  destitute  of  reason  are  horses,  oxen,  other 
^  A  syllogism  in  Barbara. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  109 

cattle,  bees,  by  whose  labor  contribution  is  made  to 
the  service  and  subsistence  of  men.  Of  the  rational 
there  are  named  two  classes,  —  the  one  of  gods,  the 
other  of  men.  Eeverence  and  purity  will  make 
the  gods  propitious.  But  next  to  and  close  after 
the  gods,  men  can  be  of  the  greatest  service  to 
men.  The  same  division  applies  to  those  things 
that  cause  injury  and  obstruction.  But  because  it 
is  thought  that  the  gods  do  no  injury,  these  being 
out  of  the  question,  men  are  regarded  as  most  of  all 
interfering  injuriously  with  men. 

Indeed,  the  very  things  that  I  have  called  inani- 
mate are  produced  for  the  most  part  by  the  labor 
of  men,  nor  could  we  have  them  unless  handicraft 
and  skill  had  given  their  aid,  nor  could  we  utilize 
them  except  under  the  management  of  men.  Nor 
without  the  labor  of  man  could  there  be  any  care 
of  health,  or  cultivation  of  the  soil,  or  harvesting 
and  preservation  of  grain  and  other  products  of  the 
ground.  Nor  could  there  be  the  exportation  of 
our  superfluous  commodities,  nor  the  importation 
of  those  in  which  we  are  lacking,  unless  men  per- 
formed these  offices.  By  parity  of  reason  the  stones 
that  we  need  for  our  use  could  not  be  quarried  from 
the  earth, 

"Nor  iron,  brass,  silver,  gold,  be  dug  from  their  deep  caverns, "^ 

without  the  labor  and  handicraft  of  men. 

^  A  verse  from  some  lost  poem,  probably  the  Promdheus  of 
Attios. 


110  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

4,  Whence,  indeed,  could  houses,  to  dispel  the 
severity  of  the  cold  and  to  allay  the  discomfort  of 
the  heat,  have  been  furnished  for  mankind  in  the 
beginning,  or  how  could  they  have  been  repaired, 
when  made  ruinous  by  storm,  or  earthquake,  or  age, 
unless  society  had  learned  to  seek  aid  in  these 
things  from  men  ?  Take  into  the  account  also 
aqueducts,  canals,  works  for  the  irrigation  of  fields, 
breakwaters,  artificial  harbors.  Whence  could  we 
have  these  without  the  labor  of  men  ?  From  these 
and  many  other  things  it  is  obvious  that  we  could 
in  no  wise  have  received  the  revenues  and  uses  de- 
rived from  inanimate  objects  without  the  skill  and 
labor  of  men.  Then,  again,  what  revenue  or  what 
convenience  could  be  derived  from  beasts,  unless 
by  the  aid  of  men  ?  For  it  was  men  certainly  who 
were  foremost  in  discovering  what  use  we  might 
make  of  the  several  beasts  in  our  service ;  nor  could 
we  now  without  the  labor  of  men  either  feed  them, 
or  tame  them,  or  keep  them,  or  receive  returns  from 
them  in  their  season.^  By  men  also  those  beasts 
that  do  harm  are  killed,  and  those  that  can  be 
of  use  are  captured.  Why  should  I  enumerate  the 
multit  ude  of  arts  without  which  life  could  not  have 
been  at  all  ?  How  would  the  sick  be  cured,  what 
would  be  the  enjoyment  of  the  healthy,  what  would 
be  our  food  or  our  mode  of  living,  did  not  so  many 
arts  give  us  their  ministries  ?     It  is  by  these  things 

1  For  instance,  wool,  at  the  proper  time  of  shearing. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis,  111 

that  the  civilized  life  of  men  is  so  far  removed 
from  the  subsistence  and  mode  of  living  of  the 
beasts.  Cities,  too,  could  not  have  been  built  and 
peopled  but  for  the  association  of  men,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  laws  and  rules  of  moral  conduct 
have  been  established,  as  also  an  equitable  dis- 
tribution of  rights,  and  a  systematic  training  for 
the  work  of  life.  These  things  have  been  fol- 
lowed by  mildness  of  disposition  and  by  modesty, 
and  the  consequence  is  that  human  life  is  better 
furuished  with  what  it  needs,  and  that  by  giv- 
ing, receiving,  and  interchanging  commodities  and 
conveniences  we  may  have  all  our  wants  sup- 
plied. 

5.  I  am  dwelling  on  this  subject  longer  than 
is  necessary;  for  who  is  there  to  whom  what 
Panaetius  says  with  no  little  prolixity  is  not  per- 
fectly obvious,  that  no  one,  either  as  a  military 
commander  or  as  a  civil  magistrate,  could  ever  have 
carried  into  effect  important  and  serviceable  meas- 
ures without  the  zealous  co-operation  of  men  ? 
He  names  Themistocles,  Pericles,  Cyrus,  Agesilaus, 
Alexander,  who,  he  says,  could  not  have  accom- 
plished such  great  things  without  the  aid  of  men. 
He  cites  witnesses  that  are  unnecessary  in  a  matter 
beyond  doubt. 

Still  further,  as  we  obtain  great  benefits  by  the 
sympathy  and  co-operation  of  men,  so  there  is  no 
degree  of  evil,  however  execrable,  which  may  not 
spring  from  man  for  man.     There  is  extant  a  book 


112  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

about  the  destruction  of  men,^  by  Dicaearclius,  a 
distinguished  and  eloquent  Peripatetic,  w^ho,  after 
enumerating  other  causes,  —  such  as  inundation, 
pestilence,  perils  of  the  desert,  the  sudden  inrush 
of  destructive  beasts^  (by  whose  assaults,  he  says, 
whole  races  of  men  have  been  consumed),  —  then 
shows  by  comparison  how  many  more  men  have 
been  exterminated  by  the  violence  of  men,  that  is, 
by  wars  or  seditions,  than  by  all  other  forms  of 
calamity. 

Since,  then,  there  is  no  doubt  on  this  point,  that 
men  transcend  all  other  causes  both  of  benefit  and 
of  injury  to  men,  I  maintain  that  it  is  a  special 
property  of  virtue  to  conciliate  the  minds  of  men, 
and  to  make  them  availing  for  its  own  uses.  Thus, 
while  whatever  in  inanimate  objects  and  in  the 
use  and  management  of  beasts  redounds  to  human 
benefit  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  mechauic  arts,  the 

^  This  work  has  entirely  perished.  Dicaearchus,  a  contempo- 
rary and  follower  of  Aristotle,  was  a  copious  writer  in  the  depart- 
ments of  geography  and  history,  as  well  as  of  philosophy.  One 
of  his  books  on  "The  Life  of  Greece,"  if  we  may  judge  by  the 
fragments  of  it  that  remain,  would  liave  been  worth  more  than  all 
other  extant  records  of  Athenian  life  in  his  age. 

^  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  any  ancient  record  of  the  extensive 
destruction  of  human  life  by  wild  beasts,  except  that  in  the  Old 
Testament  (2  Kings  xvii.  25),  of  the  slaughter  of  people  by  lions 
in  some  of  the  Samaritan  cities.  But  there  are  several  traditions 
of  instances  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  cities  or  towns  were  com- 
pelled to  change  their  abodes,  and  hardly  without  some  loss  of 
life,  by  devastating,  tormenting,  or  perilous  incursions  of  mice, 
frogs,  scorpions,  serpents,  moles,  rabbits,  and  locusts. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  113 

good  will  of  men,  prompt  and  ready  for  the  im- 
provement of  our  condition,  is  elicited  only  by  the 
wisdom  and  virtue  which  belong  to  men  of  supe- 
rior excellence. 

Indeed,  all  virtue  may  be  said  to  consist  in  three 
things,^  one  of  which  lies  in  the  clear  discernment 
of  what  is  true  and  real  in  every  subject,  of  the 
correspondences  of  things,  of  their  consequences, 
sources,  and  causes ;  the  second,  in  the  restraining 
of  those  troubled  movements  of  mind  which  the 
Greeks  call  irdOT]^  and  in  making  the  impulses 
which  they  call  op/xa?  ^  obedient  to  reason ;  the 
third,  in  the  considerate  and  wise  treatment  of 
those  with  whom  we  are  associated,  by  whose  good 
will  we  may  have  in  full  and  overflowing  measure 
whatever  nature  craves,  and  by  whose  agency  we 
may  ward  off  impending  evil,  may  exact  retribution 
of  those  who  attempt  to  do  us  harm,  and  visit  them 
with  such  punishment  as  justice  and  humanity  will 
permit. 

6.  By  what  means  we  can  attain  this  capacity  of 
winning  and  holding  men's  affections,  I  will  shortly 
expound ;  but  there  are  a  few  things  to  be  said  first. 
Who  does  not  know  that  Fortune  has  great  power 
on  either  side,  whether  toward  prosperous  or  adverse 

1  We  have  here  the  first,  fourth,  and  second  of  the  cardinal   vi>A>w>-cx, 
virtues  portrayed  in  Book  I.     The  third  is  omitted,  as  peculiarly  Vvjl^^j.  "^ 
non-utilitarian  ;  the  second  has  the  third  place,  as  a  text  to  be    h 
enlarged  upon,  —  as  the  prime  means  of  securing  such  utilities  as 

men  can  bestow. 

2  Passions.  •  Impulses. 

8 


114  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

events  ?  For  -wlien  we  sail  under  her  propitious 
breath,  we  reach  our  desired  port,  and  when  she 
sends  a  contrary  wind,  we  founder.  Fortune  her- 
self, then,  occasions  some  calamities  —  though 
comparatively  rare  —  independently  of  human 
agency :  in  the  first  place,  from  inanimate  things, 
as  by  gales,  tempests,  shipwrecks,  falling  buildings, 
conflagrations;  then  from  beasts,  by  stings,  bites, 
assaults.  These,  as  I  have  said,  are  comparatively 
infrequent.  But  the  destruction  of  armies,  as  of 
three  very  recently,^  and  of  many  others  in  former 
times ;  the  murder  of  commanders,  as  lately  that 
of  an  eminent  and  remarkable  man;^  the  enmity, 
also,  of  the  multitude,  and  by  its  means  the  exile,^ 
ruin,  flight,  often  of  well-deserving  citizens ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  prosperous  events,  civic  honors, 
military  commands,  victories,  —  these,  although  they 
are  partly  dependent  on  fortune,  cannot  be  brought 
to  pass  on  either  side  without  the  aid  and  endeavor 
of  men.  This,  then,  being  understood,  I  am  to 
explain  how  we  can  elicit  and  call  forth  the  good 
will  of  men  for  our  own  benefit.  If  the  discussion 
shall  seem  too  long,  let  it  be  compared  with  the 
advantage  to  be  derived  from  it.  It  will  then,  per- 
haps, seem  too  brief. 

^  The  army  of  Pompey  the  Great,  in  Pharsalia ;  that  of  his 
son,  at  Munda  ;  and  that  of  Scipio,  at  Thapsus,  —  all  defeated  hy 
Julius  Caesar. 

2  The  murder  of  Pompey  the  Great,  in  Egypt. 

'  Cicero  undoubtedly  has  in  mind,  here,  his  own  exile  by  the 
machinations  of  Clodius. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  115 

"WTiatever,  then,  men  bestow  upon  a  man  to  en- 
rich and  ennoble  him,  they  do  it,  either  from  kind 
feeling  to  a  person  whom  for  some  reason  they  hold 
dear ;  or  from  respect  for  one  to  whose  virtue  they 
look  up,  and  whom  they  think  worthy  of  as  ample 
good  fortune  as  can  accrue  to  him ;  or  for  one  in 
whom  they  have  confidence,  and  whose  counsel  and 
aid  for  their  own  benefit  they  hope  in  return ;  or  for 
one  whom  they  hold  in  dread  for  his  capacity  to 
injure  them ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  for  those  from 
whom  they  have  expectations,  as  when  kings  and 
demagogues  distribute  largesses  ;  or,  finally,  when 
they  are  moved  by  price  and  bribe,  which  is  the 
meanest  and  vilest  way,  both  for  those  whose  favor 
is  held  by  it  and  for  those  who  endeavor  to  resort 
to  it ;  for  it  is  a  bad  case  when  what  ought  to  be 
effected  by  virtue  is  attempted  by  money.  Yet 
since  subsidies  of  this  kind  are  sometimes  neces- 
sary,* T  will  define  their  proper  use,  when  I  shall 
have  first  spoken  of  things  which  bear  a  closer  rela- 
tion to  virtue.  Moreover,  men  put  themselves  under 
the  command  and  power  of  others  for  several  rea- 
sons. They  are  led  to  this  either  by  kind  feeling, 
or  by  the  greatness  of  favors  received,  or  by  the 
high  social  position  of  him  to  whom  they  yield 
deference,  or  by  hope  that  such  a  course  will  be  of 
use  to  them,  or  by  fear  of  being  forcibly  compelled 
to  render  obedience ;  or  they  are  attracted  by  the 

1  Cicero  here  refers,  not  to  bribery,  but  to  such  liberal  uses  of 
money  as  he  designates  with  approval  in  the  sequel. 


116  Cicero  de  OJlciis. 

prospect  of  generous  gifts  and  by  promises;  or, 
lastly,  as  we  often  see  in  our  state,  they  are  hired 
for  wages. 

7.  But  of  all  things  nothing  tends  so  much  to  the 
guarding  and  keeping  of  resources  as  to  be  the 
object  of  affection;  nor  is  anything  more  foreign  to 
that  end  than  to  be  the  object  of  fear.  Ennius  says 
most  fittingly  :  — 

"  Hate  follows  fear;  and  plotted  ruin,  hate." 

It  has  been  lately  demonstrated,  if  it  was  before 
unknown,  that  no  resources  can  resist  the  hatred  of 
a  numerous  body.  It  is  not  merely  the  destruction 
of  this  tyrant,  whom  the  state,  subdued  by  armed 
force,  endured  so  long  as  he  lived  and  obeys  most 
implicitly  now  that  he  is  dead,^  that  shows  how  far 
the  hatred  of  men  may  prove  fatal;  but  similar 
deaths  of  other  tyrants,  hardly  one  of  whom  has 
escaped  a  like  fate,  teach  this  lesson.  For  fear  is 
but  a  poor  guardian  for  permanent  possession,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  good  will  is  faithful  so  long  as 
there  can  be  need  of  its  loyalty.  Those  who  hold 
under  their  command  subjects  forcibly  kept  down 
must  indeed  resort  to  severity,  as  masters  toward 
their  slaves  when  they  cannot  otherwise  be  re- 
strained. But  nothing  can  be  more  mad  than  the 
policy  of  those  who  in  a  free  state  conduct  them- 
selves in  such  a  way  as  to  be  feared.     For  though 

*  The  Senate  were  induced  by  Antony  to  pass  sundry  laws,  the 
drafts  of  which  he  professed  —  in  part,  no  doubt,  falsely  —  to 
have  found  among  Caesar's  papers. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  117 

the  laws  be  submerged  by  some  one  man's  power, 
though  liberty  be  panic-stricken,  yet  in  time  they 
rise  to  the  surface,  either  by  opinions  circulated, 
though  unuttered,  or  by  the  quiet  mustering  of  votes 
that  shall  dispose  of  the  high  offices  of  state.  Men 
indeed  feel  more  keenly  the  suppression  of  liberty 
than  any  evils  incident  to  its  preservation.  Let  us 
then  embrace  the  policy  which  has  the  widest  scope, 
and  is  most  conducive,  not  to  safety  alone,  but  to 
affluence  and  power,  namely,  that  by  which  fear  j 
may  be  suppressed,  love  retained.  Thus  shall  we 
most  easily  obtain  what  we  desire  both  in  private 
and  in  public  life.  For  it  is  inevitable  that  those 
who  wish  to  be  feared  should  themselves  fear  the 
very  persons  by  whom  they  are  feared.  "What,  for 
instance,  must  have  been  the  case  with  the  elder  \ 
Dionysius  ?  ^  With  what  tormenting  fear  must  he 
have  been  racked,  when,  dreading  the  barber's  razor, 
he  used  to  singe  off  his  own  beard  with  burning 
coals?  What  are  we  to  think  of  Alexander  of 
Pherae  ?  ^     In  what  state  of  mind  must  we  suppose 

^  Of  Syracuse,  —  a  sovereign  of  signal  ability,  energy,  magnifi- 
cence, and  public  spirit,  a  liberal  patron  of  literature  and  philoso- 
phy, but  at  the  same  time  jealous,  suspicious,  arbitrary,  and  cruel, 
—  leaving  at  once  vestiges  of  true  greatness  as  a  king,  and  records, 
undoubtedly  in  large  part  authentic,  of  acts  that  disgrace  human- 
ity. The  story  is  that  while  his  daughters  were  very  young,  he 
made  them  shave  him  and  cut  his  hair  ;  when  they  were  old 
enough  for  him  to  fear  them,  he  used  shoots  of  the  walnut 
{juglans)  to  burn  off  his  beard.  He  had  a  ditch  round  his  bed, 
with  a  drawbridge  commanded  by  himself. 

2  He  came  to  the  throne  by  the  murder  of  his  uncle  and  prede- 
cessor. 


118  Cicero  de  OJlciis. 

him  to  have  lived,  who,  as  we  read  the  record,  though 
somewhat  fond  of  his  wife  Thebe,  yet  when  he  came 
from  supper  to  her  chamber,  ordered  a  barbarian 
attendant,  and  indeed  one,  as  we  are  told,  branded 
with  the  marks  of  a  Thracian,^  to  precede  him  with 
a  drawn  sword,  and  sent  in  advance  some  of  his 
body-guards  to  search  the  woman's  boxes,  and  see 
whether  there  were  not  some  weapon  concealed 
among  the  clothes  ?  0  wretch,  to  think  a  tattooed 
savage  more  to  be  trusted  than  his  own  wife  !  Yet 
he  was  in  the  right ;  for  he  was  slain  by  that  very 
wife,2  because  she  suspected  him  of  adultery.  Nor 
indeed  is  there  any  ruling  power  strong  enough 
to  be  enduring,  when  it  makes  itself  the  object  of 
dread.  Of  this  we  may  find  an  example  in  Phalaris  ^ 
whose  cruelty  was  notorious  beyond  that  of  any 
other  tyrant,  who  perished,  not  by  treachery,  like 
that  Alexander  of  whom  I  have  just  spoken,  —  not 

*  The  Thracians,  wlio  were  accounted  as  barbarians,  were  em- 
ployed as  body-guards  by  some  of  the  petty  tyrants  of  the  Grecian 
cities,  as  the  Swiss  have  been  employed  in  Paris  and  in  Eome,  and 
as  Scythians  were  employed  in  a  similar  capacity  at  Athens. 

*  Alexander's  chamber  was  at  the  top  of  a  ladder,  and  a  fierce 
dog  was  chained  at  the  door.  His  wife  concealed  her  three 
brothers  in  the  house  during  the  day,  removed  the  dog  after  Alex- 
ander was  asleep,  covered  the  steps  of  the  ladder  with  wool,  and 
led  the  young  men  up  to  murder  her  husband. 

*  Phalaris  is  almost  a  mythical  personage.  Different  authori- 
ties assign  dates  nearly  a  century  apart  for  the  beginning  of  his 
reign,  the  latest  date  being  570  B.  c.  There  are  also  opposite  tra- 
ditions as  to  his  character,  some  authorities  representing  him  as 
mild  and  humane. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  119 

by  the  hands  of  a  few,  like  this  tyrant  of  ours,  but 
who  was  assailed  by  the  whole  mass  of  the  people 
of  Agrigentiim.  "What  ?  Did  not  the  Macedonians 
desert  Demetrius,^  and  in  a  body  betake  themselves 
to  Pyrrhus  ?  What  ?  When  the  Lacedaemonians 
usurped  power  that  was  not  rightfully  theirs,  did 
not  almost  all  their  allies  leave  them,  and  show 
themselves  idle  spectators  of  the  disaster  at 
Leuctra  ?  ^ 

8.  I  prefer  on  such  a  subject  to  draw  my  ex-  ( 
amples  from  foreign  states  rather  than   from  our  ' 
own.    Yet  so  long  as  the  sway  of  the  Eoman  people 
was  maintained  by  the  bestowal  of  benefits,  not  by 
injustice,  wars  were  waged  either  in  defence  of  our 
allies  or  of  our  own  government ;  the  issues  of  our  ■ 
successful   wars  were  either  merciful  or  no  more 
severe  than  necessity  demanded  ;  our  Senate  was  the 
harbor  and  refuge  of  kings,  tribes,  nations  ;  while 
our  magistrates  and  military  commanders  sought  to 
obtain  the  highest  praise  from  this  one  thing,  —  the 
guarding  of  the  interests  of  our  provinces  and  our 

1  Demetrius  Poliorcetes.  Pyrrhus,  King  of  Epeirus,  had  in- 
vaded Macedonia,  and  wlien  Demetrius  marched  to  meet  him,  the 
Macedonian  army  en  masse  passed  over  to  the  invader.  Demetrius 
was  a  ruler  of  marvellous  vigor,  and  though  sometimes  truculent 
and  cruel,  and  always  grossly  sensual,  was  not  wholly  devoid  of 
humane  and  generous  feeling. 

2  The  campaign  against  Thebes,  closed  by  the  battle  of  Leuctra, 
was  opposed  to  the  wishes  of  all  the  allies  of  Sparta,  and  their 
soldiers  were  accused  by  the  Spartans  of  utter  inefficiency  in  the 
field,  to  be  accounted  for  only  by  their  reluctance  to  engage  in 
the  conflict. 


120  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

allies  by  equity  and  good  faith.  Our  sovereignty 
might  then  have  been  termed  the  patronage,  rather 
than  the  government,  of  the  world.  "We  previously 
had  encroached  by  degrees  on  this  habit  and  policy  ; 
after  Sulla's  victory  we  entirely  departed  from  it ; 
for  nothing  any  longer  appeared  inequitable  toward 
our  allies,  after  so  much  cruelty  had  been  exercised 
upon  our  own  citizens.  In  his  case  a  worthy  cause  ^ 
was  crowned  by  a  disgraceful  victory  ;  for  he  dared 
to  say,  when  under  the  auctioneer's  spear  '^  he  sold 
in  the  market-place  the  property  of  good  men  and 
rich  men  who  were  undoubtedly  citizens,  that  he 
was  selling  his  booty.  He  was  succeeded  by  one 
who  in  an  impious  cause,  after  even  a  more  dis- 
graceful victory,  not  merely  offered  for  public  sale 
the  goods  of  individual  citizens,  but  embraced  whole 
provinces  and  countries  in  one  destructive  ban. 
And  so,  foreign  nations  being  thus  oppressed  and 
ruined,  in  token  of  our  forfeited  empire,  we  saw 
Massilia  borne  in  effigy  in  a  triumphal  procession, 
and  a  triumph  celebrated  over  that  city  without 
whose  aid  our  commanders  never  gained  a  Trans- 
alpine triumph.^     I   might   mention   many  other 

1  Sulla  was  the  champion  of  the  aristocracy,  and  thus  far  his 
position  had  Cicero's  approval  and  sympathy. 

^  A  spear  stuck  in  the  ground  was  in  Rome,  as  a  red  flag  is 
with  us,  the  sign  of  a  sale  at  auction. 

*  Massilia  (Marseilles),  a  city  settled  by  Grecian  colonists,  and 
in  Caesar's  time  second  to  no  other  city  in  the  world  as  a  seat  of 
extensive  commerce,  was  from  the  first  a  faithful  ally  of  Rome, 
and,  when  the  region  of  Gaul  in  which  it  is  situated  became  a 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  121 

abominable  things  done  to  our  allies,  if  the  sun  had 
ever  beheld  anything  more  shameful  than  this  very 
transaction.  We  therefore  are  justly  punished  ;  for 
unless  we  had  so  often  had  impunity  from  guilt,  so 
great  liberty  of  sinning  would  never  have  come  into 
the  hands  of  one  man,  whose  heritage  of  property 
falls  to  few,  that  of  depraved  desire  to  many  bad 
men.  Nor  indeed  will  there  ever  be  wanting  seed 
and  pretext  for  civil  wars,  so  long  as  abandoned  men 
remember  and  hope  to  see  again  that  bloody  spear 
which  Publius  Sulla  ^  brandished  in  the  dictator- 
ship of  his  kinsman,  not  refusing  to  be  salesman 
under  a  more  atrociously  guilty  spear  thirty-six 
years  afterward;  while  anotlier  Sulla,^  who  in  the 
former  dictatorship  was  secretary,  in  this  last  was 
city-quaestor.  Hence  it  ought  to  be  inferred  that 
while  such  prizes  are  held  in  view,  civil  wars  will 
never  cease  to  be.  And  so  only  the  walls  of  the 
city  stand  and  remain,  and  even  they  already  fear 
the  extremity  of  crime  ;  the  state  itself  we  have  ut- 
terly lost.     Moreover  (for  I  must  return  to  the  point 

Eoman  province,  that  city  was  suflFered  to  retain  its  independence. 
In  the  civil  war  the  Massilians  espoused  the  cause  of  Pompey,  and 
shut  their  gates  against  Caesar,  who  besieged  and  took  the  city, 
and  had  a  model  of  it  borne  in  procession  in  his  triumph. 

1  Publius  Cornelius  Sulla,  the  nephew  of  the  dictator,  and, 
about  midway  between  his  dictatorship  and  Caesar's,  found  guilty 
of  bribery  when  a  candidate  for  the  consulship. 

2  Cornelius  Sulla,  a  freedman  of  the  dictator,  who,  as  Sulla's 
secretary,  could  secure  large  profits  from  confiscated  property,  and 
as  quaestor  under  Caesar  had  access  to  the  city  treasury. 


122  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

under  discussion),  we  have  fallen  into  these  calami- 
ties because  we  preferred  to  be  feared  rather  than 
to  be  loved  and  esteemed.     If  these  things  could 
befall  the  Eoman  people  exercising  an  unrighteous 
sway,  what  ought  individuals  to  think  as  to  their 
own  conduct  and  fortune  ?    Since  it  is  manifest  that 
the  power  of  good  will  is  great,  that  of  fear  feeble,  it 
follows  that  we  should  inquire  by  what  means  we 
can  most  easily  obtain,  together  with  respect  and 
confidence,  that  love  of  others  which  we  crave.    We 
do  not  all,  indeed,  need  this  love  in  an  equal  degree ; 
for  it  must  be  determined  by  each  person's  plan 
I  of  life,  whether  he  requires  the  love  of  many,  or 
'  whether  it  is  enough  for  him  to  be  held  in  dear 
^  regard  by  a  few.     This,  however,  may  be  accounted 
I  as   certain,  that  it  is  a  prime  and  most  essential 
I  requisite,  to  have  the  enduring  intimacy  of  friends 
!  who  love  us  and  hold  us  in  high  esteem.     This  one 
I  thing,  precious  above  all  others,  if  attained,  leaves 
I  but  little  difference  between  persons  of  the  lofti- 
est rank  and  those   in   moderate    condition,   and 
it  is  almost  equally  attainable  by  those  of  either 
class.     All,  perhaps,  do  not  alike  need  promotion, 
and  fame,  and  the  good   will   of  the   citizens   at 
large ;  but  yet,  if  one  has  these,  they  render  some 
help,  as  to  other  ends,  so  to  the  obtaining  of  friend- 
ships. 

9.  But  I  have  treated  of  friendship  in  another 
book,  under  the  title  of  Laelius.  Let  me  now  speak 
of  fame.    Though  on  that  subject  also  I  have  written 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  123 

two  books,^  let  me  touch  briefly  upon  it  here,  since 
it  is  of  the  utmost  service  in  the  administration  of 
important   affairs. 

The  highest  fame,  and  that  to  which  there  are  no , 
drawbacks,  consists  of  these  three  things,  —  the 
affection  of  the  multitude,  their  confidence,  and 
their  regarding  a  person  as  worthy  of  honor  because 
they  hold  him  in  admiration.^  Moreover,  these 
requisites  to  fame  —  to  speak  plainly  and  concisely 
—  are  obtained  from  the  multitude  by  nearly  the 
same  means  by  which  they  are  obtained  from  indi- 
viduals. But  there  is  also  a  certain  other  avenue 
to  the  popular  favor,  by  which  we  may,  as  it  were, 
steal  into  the  affections  of  all. 

Of  the  three  things  just  named,  let  us  consider, 
first,  the  rules  for  winning  good  will.  It  is,  indeed, 
best  secured  by  conferring  benefits.  But,  in  the 
second  place,  favor  is  elicited  by  the  will  to  do 
good,  even  if  the  means  of  beneficence  chance  to  be 
insufficient.  The  love  of  the  multitude,  indeed,  is 
strongly  excited  by  the  very  report  and  reputation 
of  liberality,  beneficence,  honesty,  good  faith,  and 
all  those  virtues  which  are  included  in  gentleness 
of  manners  and  affability.  For  since  that  very 
style  of  character  which  we  call  right  and  becoming, 
in  itself,  gives  us  pleasure,  and  by  its  nature  and 

*  They  are  both  lost.  Cicero  mentions  one  of  them  in  Letters 
to  Atticus,  xvi.  27.    "  Librum  tibi  celerrime  mittam  de  gloria." 

2  This  is  evidently  meant  to  exclude  the  meaner  ways  by  which 
men  insinuate  themselves  into  popular  favor. 


124  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

aspect  captivates  the  minds  of  all,  and  shines  forth 
M'ith  the  greatest  lustre  from  the  virtues  that  I  have 
named,  we  are  therefore  compelled  by  Nature  her- 
self to  love  the  persons  in  whom  we  think  that 
these  virtues  are  found.  These,  however,  are  only 
the  most  efficient  causes  of  good  will;  for  there 
may  be  some  others,  though  of  less  weight. 

Of  the  confidence  which  may  be  reposed  in  us 
there  are  two  efiicient  causes,  our  having  a  reputa- 
tion for  discretion  and,  at  the  same  time,  for  honesty. 
For  we  have  confidence  in  those  whom  we  think 
our  superiors  in  intelligence,  who,  as  we  believe, 
look  into  the  future,  and  who,  when  an  affair  is  in 
/  agitation  and  a  crisis  is  reached,  can  clear  it  of  diffi- 
culty, and  take  counsel  according  to  circumstances 
(for  this  men  regard  as  true  and  serviceable  discre- 
tion); while  the  confidence  reposed  in  honest  and 
faithful  men,  that  is,  in  good  men,  is  such  that 
there  can  rest  upon  them  no  suspicion  of  fraud  and 
wrong.  And  so  we  think  that  our  personal  security, 
our  fortunes,  our  children,  can  be  most  fittingly 
intrusted  to  their  care.  Of  these  two  qualities, 
then,  honesty  has  the  greater  power  to  create  confi- 
dence; for  while  without  discretion  honesty  has 
sufficient  prestige,  discretion  without  honesty  can 
be  of  no  avail  in  inspiring  confidence.  For  the 
more  skilful  and  adroit  one  is,  for  this  very  reason 
is  he  the  more  odious  and  the  more  open  to  sus- 
picion, if  he  has  no  reputation  for  honesty.  Intelli- 
gence, then,  combined  with  honesty,  will  have  all 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  125 

the  power  that  it  can  desire  in  creating  confidence ; 
honesty  without  discretion  will  have  much  influ- 
ence toward  that  end ;  discretion  without  honesty 
will  be  of  no  avail  whatever. 

10.  But  if  any  one  may  have  wondered,  why, 
while  all  philosophers  alike  maintain,  and  I  myself 
have  often  asserted,  that  whoever  has  one  virtue  has 
all,  I  now  separate  them  as  if  a  man  could  be  hon- 
est without  being  wise  also,  my  answer  is  that  the 
nicety  of  expression  employed  when  the  inmost 
truth  is  under  discussion  is  one  thing ;  the  language 
used  when  what  we  say  is  entirely  adapted  to 
popular  opinion  is  another.  Therefore,  on  this 
head  I  am  speaking  as  people  in  general  do,  when 
I  call  some  men  brave,  others  good,  others  wise ; 
for  I  ought  to  employ  common  and  usual  terms 
when  I  am  speaking  of  public  opinion,  and  Panae- 
tius  employed  them  in  the  same  way.  But  let  us 
return  to  our  subject. 

Of  the  three  requisites  for  fame,  the  third  that 
I  named  was  this,  —  that  men  should  so  hold  us  in 
admiration  as  to  regard  us  worthy  of  honor.  Men 
generally  admire  all  things  that  they  see  to  be 
great  and  beyond  their  expectation,  and  specially 
in  individual  objects  such  unexpected  good  qualities 
as  they  discern.  Therefore  they  admire  and  extol 
with  the  highest  praise  those  men  in  whom  they 
think  that  they  perceive  certain  rare  and  surpassing 
virtues;  while  they  look  down  with  contempt  on 
those  in  whom  they  imagine  that  there  is  no  manli- 


126  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

ness,  no  spirit,  no  energy.  For  they  do  not  despise 
all  of  whom  they  think  ill.  They  do  not  despise, 
indeed,  those  whom  they  regard  as  villanous,  mali- 
cious, fraudulent,  capable  of  doing  mischief,  —  by 
no  means;  of  persons  of  this  sort  they  think  ill. 
But,  as  I  have  said,  those  are  despised  who,  as  the 
saying  is,  are  of  no  good  to  themselves  or  to  any  one 
else,  in  whom  there  is  no  work,  no  industry,  no 
forethought.  On  the  other  hand,  those  are  regarded 
with  a  certain  measure  of  admiration,  who  are 
thought  to  excel  others  in  virtue,  and  to  be  free  not 
only  from  all  disgrace,  but  also  from  those  vices 
which  their  fellow-men  cannot  easily  resist.  For 
sensual  pleasures,  the  most  alluring  of  mistresses, 
turn  away  the  minds  of  the  greater  part  of  mankind 
from  virtue,  and  equally  when  the  fiery  trial  of 
affliction  ^  comes  most  persons  are  beyond  measure 
terrified.  Life,  death,  riches,  poverty,  most  vio- 
lently agitate  the  great  mass  of  mankind.  When 
men  with  a  lofty  and  large  soul  look  down  on  these 
experiences,  whether  prosperous  or  adverse,  while 
any  great  and  honorable  object  of  endeavor  pro- 
posed to  them  converges  and  concentrates  their 
whole  being  in  its  pursuit,  who  can  fail  to  admire 
in  them  the  splendor  and  beauty  of  virtue  ? 

11.  This  contempt  of  the  mind  for  outward  for- 
tunes thus  excites  great  admiration ;  and  most  of  all, 
justice,  for  which  one  virtue  men  are  called  good, 
seems  to  the  multitude  a  quality  of  marvellous 

1  Latin,  dolorum  faces,  — the  torches,  or  cautery,  of  sorrows. 


Cicero  cle  OJiciis.  127 

excellence,  —  and  not  without  good  reason ;  for  no  | 
one  can  be  just,  who  dreads  death,  pain,  exile,  or 
poverty,  or  who  prefers  their  opposites  to  honesty. 
Men  have,  especially,  the  highest  admiration  for 
one  who  is  not  influenced  by  money;  for  they 
think  that  the  man  in  whom  this  trait  is  made 
thoroughly  manifest  has  been  tested  by  fire. 

Thus  justice  constitutes  all  three  of  the  requisites 
to  fame  which  I  have  named,  —  affection,  because 
it  aims  to  do  good  to  the  greatest  number,  and  for 
the  same  reason,  confidence  and  admiration,  because 
it  spurns  and  neglects  those  things  to  which  most 
men  are  drawn  with  burning  greediness.  More- 
over, in  my  opinion,  every  mode  and  plan  of  life 
demands  the  aid  of  men,  and  craves  especially 
those  with  whom  there  may  be  friendly  conversa- 
tional intercourse,  w^hich  is  not  easy,  unless  you  are 
looked  upon  as  a  good  man.  Therefore,  even  to 
a  recluse,  or  to  one  who  passes  his  life  in  the 
country,  the  reputation  of  honesty  is  essential,  and 
the  more  so  because,  if  he  do  not  have  it,  in  his 
defenceless  condition,  he  will  be  assailed  by  many 
wrongs.  Those,  too,  who  sell  and  buy,  hire  and 
lease,  and  are  involved  in  business  affairs,  need 
honesty  for  the  management  of  their  concerns. 
The  force  of  this  virtue  is  such  that  those  who 
obtain  their  subsistence  by  crime  and  guilt  cannot 
live  entirely  without  honesty.  For  he  who  takes 
anything  by  stealth  or  force  from  a  fellow-robber 
cannot  maintain  his   place  in  a  band  of  robbers; 


128  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

and  even  the  man  who  is  called  captain  of  a  crew 
of  pirates,  if  he  were  not  impartial  in  the  division 
of  their  plunder,  would  be  either  killed  or  deserted 
by  his  crew.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  ev&n  among 
robbers  there  are  laws  which  they  obey,  which  they 
hold  sacred.  Thus  by  fairness  in  the  distribution 
of  booty,  Bardylis,  an  lUyrian  robber,  of  whom 
Theopompus  makes  mention,  obtained  great  wealth, 
and  Viriathus,  the  Lusitanian,^  much  greater,  to 
whom  indeed  some  of  our  armies  and  commanders 
gave  way  in  battle,  whom  Caius  Laelius,  commonly 
called  the  Wise,  when  he  was  praetor,  crippled  and 
reduced,  and  so  subdued  his  ferocity  that  he  trans- 
mitted an  easy  conflict  with  him  to  his  successors. 
'  Since,  then,  the  force  of  justice  is  such  that  it 
strengthens  and  augments  the  resources  even  of 
robbers,  how  great  shall  we  account  its  efficacy 
among  laws  and  courts,  and  in  a  well  ordered 
state  ? 

12.  I  am  inclined  to  think,  indeed,  that  not  only 
among  the  Medes,  as  Herodotus  relates,^  but  also 

1  These  men  were  hardly  robbers  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word ;  but  they  carried  on  for  many  years  guerilla  warfare,  and, 
as  is  generally  the  case  in  such  warfare,  their  forays  were  fully  as 
much  predatory  as  murderous.  They  were  called  robbers  because 
they  were  barbarians.  But  Bardylis  is  termed  by  Diodorus  king 
of  the  lUyrians,  having  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Ei)eirus,  for  Ms  son-in- 
law  ;  and  Viriathus  seems  to  have  been  a  patriotic  chieftain, 
whose  prime  aim  was  to  resist  the  Roman  supremacy. 

2  According  to  Herodotus,  Deioces,  ambitious  of  sovereignty, 
commenced  as  arbitrator  in  his  own  village,  and  on  account  of  the 
reputation  thus  obtained  for  justice  was  chosen  king.     His  admin- 


Cicero  clc  Ojfficiis.  129 

among;  our  ancestors,  men  who  had  borne  a  hisfh 
moral  character  were  in  early  times  appointed 
kings,  in  order  to  the  administration  of  justice; 
for  when  the  poor  commonalty  M^ere  oppressed  by 
those  of  greater  wealth,  they  had  recourse  to  some 
one  man  pre-eminent  in  virtue,  who,  while  he 
defended  the  poorer  classes  from  wrong,  by  estab- 
lishing equitable  jurisdiction  kept  the  highest  under 
the  same  legal  obligations  with  the  lowest.  There 
was  like  reason  for  making  laws  as  for  choosing 
kings ;  for  equality  of  right  was  always  sought,  nor 
without  equality  can  right  exist.  If  this  could  be 
obtained  through  the  ministry  of  one  just  and  good 
man,  the  people  were  contented  under  his  rule. 
But  when  this  ceased  to  be  the  case,  laws  were 
invented  which  should  speak  with  all,  at  all  times, 
in  one  and  the  same  voice.  This,  then,  is  manifest, 
that  those  of  whose  justice  the  mass  of  the  people 
had  an  exalted  opinion  used  to  be  chosen  as  rulers. 
If  in  addition  these  same  persons  were  thought 
wise,  there  was  nothing  that  men  did  not  expect 
to  obtain  under  their  administration.     Justice  is, 

istration  is  represented  as  having  been,  though  impartial,  annoy- 
ingly  inquisitorial  and  relentlessly  severe.  But  as  his  reign  began 
more  than  seven  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  he  may  be 
regarded  as  a  semi-mythical  personage,  and  a  like  doubt  may 
be  thrown  on  the  origin  of  the  Median  sovereignty.  The  theory 
of  the  origin  of  kingly  power  here  given  seems  to  have  been  a 
favorite  notion  with  Cicero,  and  is  found  in  other  works  of  his. 
It  perhaps  defines  what  ought  to  have  been  ;  but  in  fact  the 
kingly  office  was  probably  at  the  outset  but  an  extension  of  patri- 
archal sovereignty. 

9 


130  Cicero  de  Officiis.  ' 

therefore,  by  all  means  to  be  cherished  and  held  fast, 
at  once  for  its  Own  sake — else  it  would  not  be  justice 
—  and  for  the  increase  of  one's  honor  and  fame. 

But  as  there  is  a  method,  not  only  of  acquiring 
money,  but  also  of  investing  it,  so  that  it  may 
supply  constant  demands  for  generous  giving  no 
less  than  for  necessary  uses,  so  is  fame  to  be 
properly  invested  as  well  as  sought.  There  is  great 
truth,  however,  in  the  saying  of  Socrates,  that  this 
is  the  nearest  way,  and,  as  it  were,  a  short  road  to 
fame,  —  for  one  to  endeavor  to  be  such  as  he  would 
wish  to  be  regarded.  If  there  be  those  who  think 
to  obtain  enduring  fame  by  dissembling  and  empty 
show,  and  by  hypocrisy,  not  only  of  speech,  but  of 
countenance  also,  they  are  utterly  mistaken.  True 
fame  strikes  its  roots  downward,  and  sends  out 
fresh  shoots  ;^  all  figments  fall  speedily,  like  blos- 
soms, nor  can  anything  feigned  be  lasting.  Very 
many  cases  might  be  cited  in  attestation  on  either 
side ;  but  for  the  sake  of  brevity  I  will  name  but 
a  single  family.  Tiberius  Gracchus,  the  son  of 
Publius,  will  be  praised  as  long  as  the  memory 
of  Roman  affairs  shall  last ;  but  his  sons  were  not 
approved  by  good  men  while  they  were  living,  and 
in  death  they  have  their  position  among  those 
whose  murder  was  justifiable.^ 

1  The  allusion  here  .seems  to  be  to  trees  like  the  banyan,  whose 
branches,  as  they  bend  to  the  ground,  take  root,  and  send  up  fresh 
shoots. 

2  All  the  surviving  records  of  the  father's  life  entirely  justify 
Cicero's  encomium ;  it  is  an  open  question  whether  the  sons  may 


Cicero  de  OJicns.  131 

13.  Let  him,  then,  who  would  obtain  genuine 
fame  discharge  the  duties  of  justice.  What  these 
are  I  have  shown  in  the  First  Book. 

But  in  order  that  we  may  be  taken  for  what  we 
really  are,  though  there  is  the  greatest  ef&cacy  in 
our  being  what  we  would  be  taken  for,  yet  some 
additional  rules  are  to  be  given.  If,  indeed,  one 
from  early  youth  finds  himself  in  a  position  of 
celebrity  and  reputation,  either  inherited  from  his 
father  (as  I  think  is  the  case  with  you,  my  Cicero,) 
or  by  some  chance  or  happy  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances, the  eyes  of  all  are  turned  to  him ; 
inquiry  is  made  about  him,  what  he  is  doing,  how 
he  is  living,  and,  as  if  he  were  moving  in  the  clear- 
est light,  nothing  that  he  says  or  does  can  be 
concealed.  But  those  whose  first  years,  on  account 
of  their  lowly  and  obscure  condition,  are  passed  out 
of  the  knowledge  of  men,  as  soon  as  they  emerge 
from  childhood,  ought  to  hold  great  aims  in  view, 
and  to  strive  after  them  with  unswerving  diligence, 
which  they  will  do  with  the  greater  confidence, 
since  that  age  is  not  only  exempt  from  envious 
regard,  but  is  even  looked  upon  with  favor. 

not  have  fully  inherited  his  high  moral  worth  and  devoted  patri- 
otism. The  family  was  plebeian,  and  it  may  not  be  otherwise 
than  natural,  that  while  the  father  —  allied  by  marriage  to  the 
patrician  family  of  the  Scipios  —  was  identified  with  the  aristoc- 
racy, the  sons  should  with  honest  and  disinterested  zeal  have 
devoted  themselves  to  the  relief,  elevation,  and  well-being  of  the 
plebeians,  who  in  their  time  might  justly  complain  of  disabilities 
and  oppression. 


132  Cicero  de  OJlciis. 

A  youth,  tlien,  has  the  first  title  to  fame,  if  he 
have  the  opportunity  of  obtaining  it  by  military 
service,  in  which  many  in  the  days  of  our  ancestors 
won  early  distinction ;  for  wars  were  almost  perpet- 
ual. But  your  time  of  service  fell  upon  the  epoch 
of  that  war  in  which  one  party  was  exceedingly 
guilty,  the  other  unsuccessful.  Yet-  in  this  war, 
when  Pompey  had  made  you  commander  of  the 
left  wing  of  his  army,^  you  won  great  praise  both 
from  that  illustrious  man  and  from  your  fellow- 
soldiers  for  your  horsemanship,  your  skill  in  the 
use  of  weapons,  and  your  endurance  of  all  the  hard- 
ships of  the  camp  and  the  field.  This  reputation 
of  yours  sank,  indeed,  simultaneously  with  the 
state.  I  have  undertaken  this  discussion,  however, 
not  with  reference  to  you  alone,  but  with  reference 
to  young  men  as  a  class.  Let  us  then  pass  on  to 
the  remaining  subjects. 

As  in  all  other  respects  mental  are  much  greater 
than  bodily  achievements,  so  those  things  which 
we  accomplish  by  intellect  and  reason  win  greater 

^  Latin,  aloe  alteri.  Ala  may  mean  either  one  of  tlie  wings 
of  an  army  or  one  of  the  squadrons  of  cavalry  usually  attached 
to  every  legion  of  foot-soldiers  in  service.  Without  the  alteri, 
as  young  Cicero  was  only  sixteen  years  of  age,  aloe  should  un- 
doubtedly be  rendered  a  squadron,  and  many  of  the  commen- 
tators suspect  alteri  to  be  a  spurious  interpolation.  But  a.s 
Pompey  was  to  the  last  degree  solicitous  to  secure  and  retain  the 
moral  support  of  Cicero,  he  may  have  sought  to  flatter  the  father 
by  appointing  the  son  to  a  nominal  command,  delegating  its  more 
important  duties  to  officers  of  maturer  years  and  experience. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  133 

favor  than  those  which  we  perform  by  mere  physical 
strength.  The  first  claim  that  can  be  proffered  for  the 
general  esteem  proceeds  from  regularity  of  conduct, 
with  filial  piety  and  kindness  to  those  of  one's  own 
family.  Then,  too,  young  men  become  most  favor- 
ably known  when  they  seek  the  society  of  eminent, 
wise,  and  patriotic  citizens,  with  whom  if  they  are 
intimate,  they  inspire  the  people  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  they  are  going  to  resemble  those  whom 
they  have  chosen  as  models  for  imitation.  His 
frequenting  the  house  of  Publius  Mucins  ^  gave  the 
youth  of  Publius  Eutilius  ^  the  reputation  both  of 
moral  purity  and  of  legal  knowledge.  On  the  other 
hand,  however,  Lucius  Crassus,  while  yet  a  mere 
boy,  sought  no  countenance  from  his  elders,  yet 
won  for  himself  the  highest  reputation  from  that 
splendid  and  famous  accusation ;  ^  and  (as  we  learn 

1  Publius  Mucius  Scaevola,  of  the  highest  reputation  as  a 
jurist,  and  a  copious  writer  on  the  Roman  law.  While  vehe- 
mently opposed  to  the  Gracchi,  and  approving  of  the  murder  of 
Tiberius  Gracchus,  he  gave  a  legal  opinion  in  favor  of  compensa- 
tion from  the  public  treasury  for  the  value  of  the  effects  constitut- 
ing the  dowTy  of  the  wife  of  Cains  Gracchus,  lost  in  the  popular 
disturbance  caused  by  her  husband. 

2  A  man  of  rigid  integrity  and  probity,  and  eminent  for  ability 
and  learning  as  a  jurisconsult  and  a  forensic  orator. 

3  Lucius  Licinius  Crassus.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest 
orator  of  his  time.  Cicero  may  have  heard  him,  having  been 
sixteen  years  of  age  at  his  death.  When  a  mere  stripling,  — 
Tacitus  says,  of  nineteen  years,  —  he  accused  Caius  Papirius 
Carbo,  of  what  crime  we  do  not  know,  probably  of  bribery  or 
extortion,  and  met  with  such  signal  success  that  Carbo  committed 
suicide  to  escape  condemnation. 


134  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

was  the  case  with  Demosthenes),^  at  the  very  age 
when  young  men  are  wont  to  be  applauded  for  their 
exercises  in  declamation,  Lucius  Crassus  showed 
that  he  could  already  do  to  perfection  before  the 
judges  what  it  would  have  been  to  his  credit 
to  have  merely  rehearsed  by  way  of  practice  at 
home. 

14.  But  while  there  are  two  kinds  of  speech,  to 
one  of  which  conversation  belongs,  to  the  other 
public  debate,^  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  latter  is 
most  conducive  to  the  acquisition  of  fame  (for  it  is 
that  which  we  dignify  by  the  name  of  eloquence) ; 
yet  it  is  hard  to  say  to  what  a  degree  agreeableness 
and  affability  of  conversation  win  favor.  There  are 
extant  letters  of  Philip  to  Alexander,  of  Antipater 
to  Cassander,  and  of  Antigonus  to  Philip,  —  all  three, 
as  we  learn,  men  of  the  greatest  practical  wisdom,  — 
in  which  they  advise  their  sous  to  allure  the  minds 
of  the  multitude  in  their  favor  by  kindliness  of 
address,  and  to  charm  the  soldiers  by  accosting 
them  in  a  genial  way. 

But  the  speech  that  is  uttered  with  energy  in 
a  great   assembly  often  awakens  the   enthusiasm 

1  Demosthenes,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  brought  a  successful 
suit  against  his  guardians,  to  compel  them  to  render  account  of 
his  property  in  their  hands. 

^  Latin,  contentio.  The  only  occasions  for  the  practice  of 
oratoiy  in  Rome  were  such  as  might  be  designated  by  this  term, 
which  means  contention.  They  were  the  advocacy  of  disputed 
measures  in  the  Senate  or  before  the  people  and  the  pleading  of 
cases  in  the  courts  of  law. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  135 

of  the  entire  audience ;  for  great  is  the  admiration 
bestowed  on  him  who  speaks  fluently  and  wisely, 
and  those  who  hear  him  think  that  he  also  has 
more  intelligence  and  good  sense  than  other  men. 
And  if  there  is  in  the  speech  substantial  merit 
united  with  moderation,  there  can  be  nothing  more 
worthy  to  be  admired,  especially  if  these  properties 
are  found  in  a  young  man.  But  while  there  are 
many  kinds  of  occasions  that  demand  eloquence, 
and  many  young  men  in  our  state  have  obtained 
praise  by  speaking  both  before  judges  and  in  the 
Senate,  the  highest  admiration  attends  the  elo- 
quence of  the  courts,!  before  which  there  are  two 
descriptions  of  oratory,  that  of  accusation,  and  that 
of  defence,  of  which,  although  the  latter  is  more 
worthy  of  praise,  yet  the  former  is  very  frequently 
regarded  with  favor.  I  spoke  just  now  of  Crassus. 
Marcus  Antonius^  did  the  same  when  he  was  a 

1  There  was  in  Rome  no  profession  corresponding  to  that 
of  the  modem  advocate.  There  were  jurisconsults,  men  learned 
in  the  law,  many  of  whom  were  also  eloquent  advocates,  while 
others  were  chamber-counsel,  to  whom  advocates,  as  well  as  the 
immediate  parties  in  a  suit,  resorted  for  legal  opinions  and 
advice.  But  any  man  who  had  the  will  and  the  ability  might 
take  charge  of  a  case  in  court;  and  for  young  Romans  wlio  aspired 
to  distinction,  after  military  ambition  began  to  wane,  the  bar  was 
the  favorite  avenue  to  the  popular  favor.  There  were  no  public 
prosecutors  ;  but  any  person  who  was  ready  to  make  and  sustain 
a  criminal  charge  had  only  to  present  himself  before  the  pi-aetor 
urbanus,  and  to  swear  that  he  was  acting  not  from  malicious 
motives,  but  in  good  faith,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  state. 

2  Grandfather  of  the  triumvir,  —  a  contemporary  of  Crassus, 
and  of  nearly  equal  reputation  as  an  orator. 


136  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

young  man.  A  public  accusation  also  brought  into 
favorable  notice  the  eloquence  of  Publius  Sulpicius,^ 
when  he  arraigned  for  trial  that  seditious  and  worth- 
less citizen,  Caius  Norbanus.  Yet  this  ought  not 
to  be  done  often,  nor  ever  except  in  the  interest 
of  the  state,  as  in  the  cases  that  I  have  named,  or 
to  avenge  wrongs,  as  the  two  LucuUi  did,^  or  for 
those  under  one's  special  patronage,  as  when  I 
appeared  in  behalf  of  the  Sicilians,^  and  Julius* 
in  behalf  of  the  Sardinians  in  the  accusation  of 
Albucius  the  propraetor.  The  painstaking  fidelity 
of  Lucius  Fufius  in  the  accusation  of  Manius 
Aquillius^  is  also  well  known.  One  may,  then, 
venture  upon  accusation  once,  or,  at  any  rate,  not 
often.  Or  if  there  be  reason  for  doing  so  more 
frequently,  let  it  be  done  as  a  service  to  the  state, 
whose  enemies  one  is  not  to  be  blamed  for  punish- 

1  He  was  twenty-eight  years  old  when  he  accused  Caius 
Norbanus  of  majestas,  or  treason,  for  turbulent  and  seditious 
conduct  as  tribune  of  the  people. 

*  The  augur  Servilius  had  prosecuted  their  father  for  bribery 
and  malversation  in  Sicily,  and  procured  his  condemnation  and 
exile.  Though  the  elder  Lucullus  was  undoubtedly  guilty,  liis 
sons  may  have  supposed  him  innocent,  and  at  any  i-ate  they 
avenged  themselves  by  the  unsuccessful  impeachment  of  Ser- 
vilius. 

'  In-  the  impeachment  of  Verres. 

*  Caius  Julius  Caesar,  who  commenced  public  life  by  the  accu- 
sation of  Titus  Albucius  of  extortion  as  praetor  in  Sicily,  and 
procured  his  condemnation. 

*  He  was  accused  by  Fufius  of  extortion  in  Sicily ;  but,  not- 
withstanding strong  proofs  of  guilt,  was  acquitted  on  the  ground 
of  signal  courage  and  ability  in  military  command. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  137 

ing  repeatedly.  But  even  then  let  there  be  a  limit ; 
for  it  is  the  part  of  a  hard  man,  or,  I  should  rather 
say,  scarcely  of  a  man,  to  prefer  a  capital  charge 
against  any  considerable  number  of  persons.^  While 
it  is  fraught  with  personal  danger,  it  is  also  damag- 
ing to  one's  reputation,  to  allow  himself  to  be  called 
an  accuser,  which  was  the  fortune  of  Marcus  Brutus,"'^ 
born  of  an  illustrious  race,  the  son  of  the  Brutus 
who  was  eminent  for  his  skill  in  the  civil  law. 
Moreover,  this  maxim  of  duty  is  to  be  carefully 
observed,  that  you  never  bring  an  innocent  person 
to  a  capital  trial ;  for  this  cannot  possibly  be  done 
without  guilt.  Nay,  what  is  so  inhuman  as  to  per- 
vert eloquence,  bestowed  by  Nature  for  tlie  security 
and  preservation  of  men,  to  the  destruction  and  ruin 
of  good  citizens?  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  not- 
to  be  so  scrupulous  as  to  decline  defending  on  some 
occasions  a  guilty  man,  if  he  be  not  utterly  depraved 
and  false  to  all  human  relations.  This-  tlie  people 
demand,  custom  permits,  even  humanity  endures. 
It  belongs  to  the  judge  in  the  cases  before  him 
always  to  seek  the  truth ;  to  the  advocate,  some- 
times to  defend  the  probable,  even  if  it  be  not  abso- 

1  Judicium  capitis,  or  a  capital  trial,  was  a  phrase  used,  not 
only  where  life  was  put  in  jeopardy,  but  with  reference  to  all  cases 
in  which  one's  standing  and  privileges  as  a  citizen  were  imperilled, 
and  the  danger  of  degradation  or  exile  was  incurred. 

2  Marcus  Junius  Bratus.  His  father  was  eminent  for  his 
legal  learning.  Of  the  son  we  know  little  except  from  Cicero, 
who  may  have  been  prejudiced  against  him  as  belonging  to  the 
opposite  political  party.  ^ 


138  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

lutely  true,  —  which  I  should  not  dare  to  write, 
especially  in  a  philosophical  treatise,  unless  that 
strictest  of  the  Stoics,  Panaetius,  were  of  the  same 
opinion.  But  fame  and  favor  are  best  secured  by 
the  defence  of  accused  persons,  especially  if  it  so 
happens  that  this  service  is  rendered  in  aid  of  one 
who  seems  to  be  circumvented  and  put  in  peril  by 
the  influence  of  some  man  in  power,  —  a  service 
which  I  have  performed  on  many  other  occasions, 
and  especially  —  when  I  was  still  a  young  man  —  in 
defending  Sextus  Eoscius^  against  the  power  of 
Lucius  Sulla,  then  playing  the  tyrant,  —  a  speech 
which,  as  you  know,  is  published. 

15.  Having  explained  the  ways  in  which,  consist- 
ently with  duty,  young  men  may  obtain  fame,  I  must 
,  speak,  in  the  next  place,  of  beneficence  and  liberal- 
ity, of  which  there  are  two  sorts,  kindness  to  those 
needing  it  being  shown  either  by  personal  service 
or  by  money.    The  latter  is  more  easy,  especially  for 

1  There  is  nothing  in  the  entire  record  of  Cicero's  life  more 
honorable  to  him  than  his  conduct  on  this  trial,  in  which  he  was 
for  the  first  time  engaged  in  a  criminal  cause.  Sextus  Roscius 
was  accused  of  the  murder  of  his  father,  on  no  valid  or  prob- 
able evidence,  and  undoubtedly  with  the  view  of  securing  perma- 
nent legality  to  the  seizure  of  the  father's  property  on  the  false 
pretence  of  unpaid  debts.  The  principal  in  the  fraud  and  the 
instigator  of  the  criminal  pursuit  was  Chrysogonus,  a  freed  man 
of  Sulla.  With  every  possible  obstacle  thrown  in  his  way,  and 
with  the  whole  influence  of  the  dictator  pressed  into  the  opposite 
scale,  Cicero  procured,  by  the  masterly  management  of  the  case, 
no  less  than  by  his  eloquent  defence,  the  acquittal  of  his  client, 
but  undoubtedly  incurred  imminent  peril. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  139 

one  who  is  rich ;  but  the  former  is  more  noble,  more 
magnificent,  and  more  worthy  of  a  strong  and  emi- 
nent man.  For  although  in  both  modes  there  is  the 
generous  desire  of  bestowing  benefit,  yet  in  the  one 
case  the  kindness  is  drawn  from  the  purse,  in  the 
other  from  the  giver's  own  ability  and  worth.  The 
bounty  which  proceeds  from  one's  property  drains 
the  very  source  of  liberality.  Thus  generosity  is 
made  impossible  by  generosity,  which  you  can 
extend  to  the  fewer  in  time  to  come,  the  more 
numerous  its  beneficiaries  have  been  in  the  time 
past.  But  those  who  will  be  beneficent  and  gen- 
erous in  personal  service,  that  is,  by  influence  and 
effort,  the  more  persons  they  have  already  benefited, 
will  have  the  more  helpers  in  doing  good.  Then, 
too,  by  the  habit  of  beneficent  action,  they  will  be 
better  prepared,  and,  as  it  were,  better  trained,  to 
merit  the  gratitude  of  the  larger  number.  Philip, 
in  a  certain  letter  of  his,  very  justly  blames  his  son 
Alexander  for  seeking  the  good  will  of  the  Mace- 
donians by  distributing  gifts  among  them.  "What, 
the  mischief ! "  says  he,  "  ever  induced  you  to  enter- 
tain a  hope  like  this,  that  those  whom  you  had 
corrupted  by  money  would  be  faithful  to  you  ?  Are 
you  doing  this  that  the  Macedonians  may  hope  to 
have  you  not  for  their  king,  but  for  their  lackey 
and  caterer  ?  "  "  Lackey  and  caterer  "  is  well  said, 
since  such  conduct  is  mean  for  a  king;  and  still 
better  was  it  that  he  termed  lavish  giving  "  corrup- 
tion."    For  he  who  receives  such  gifts  grows  worse. 


140  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

and  more  ready  to  expect  the  like  in  all  time  to 
come.     He  said  this  to  his  son ;  let  us  regard  his 
advice  as  given  to  all.     It  is,  then,  beyond  doubt 
that  the  kindness  which  consists  in  personal  service 
and  effort  is  more  honorable,  and  extends  farther, 
and  can  benefit  a  larger  number.    Yet  gifts  must  be 
sometimes  bestowed,  nor  is  this  form  of  kindness 
to  be   wholly  repudiated ;  and  aid  should  be  often 
given  to  the  deserving  poor  from  one's  own  property, 
I  but  thriftily  and  moderately.     Many,  indeed,  have 
squandered  their  property  in  inconsiderate  gener- 
osity.    But  what  is  more  foolish  than  to  disable 
yourself  from  continuing  to  do  what  you  take  pleas- 
ure in  doing  ?     Moreover,  rapine  follows  extrava- 
gance in  giving ;  for  when  men  in  consequence  of 
,  their  lavish  generosity  have  begun  to  be  in  want, 
they  are  constrained  to  lay  hands  on  the  property 
of  others.    Thus,  while  they  desire  to  be  generous  in 
:  order  to  win  favor,  they  obtain  not  so  much  the 
I  attachment  of  those  to  whom  they  have  been  liberal 
■  as   the  hatred  of  those  whom  they  have  robbed. 
{  Therefore  private  property  should  neither  be  so  shut 
i  up  that  kindness  cannot  open  it,  nor  so  thrown  wide 
as  to  lie  open  to  all.     Let  a  limit  be  observed,  and 
let  this  be  determined  by  our  means.     We  ought 
always  to  remember  what  has  been  so  often  repeated 
by  our  people  as  to  have  come  into  use  as  a  proverb, 
that  prodigal  giving  has   no   bottom.^    For  what 

1  The  allusion  here  is,  undoubtedly,  to  the  cask  with  a  perfo- 
rated bottom  which  the  Danaides  are  eternally  attempting  to  fill. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  141 

bound  can  there  be  to  such  giving,  when  those  who 
have  been  accustomed  to  receive,  crave  what  they 
have  been  wont  to  get,  and  others  also  crave  the 
same  ? 

16.  Of  bountiful  givers  there  are,  in  fine,  two 
kinds,  the  one  class  prodigal,  the  other  liberal, — 
the  prodigal,  those  who,  in  public  banquets,  distri- 
butions of  flesh,  gladiatorial  shows,  and  the  prepara- 
tion of  games  and  wild-beast  fights,  pour  out  money 
on  the  kinds  of  things  of  which  they  will  leave  but  a 
brief  remembrance,  or  none  at  all ;  the  liberal,  those 
who  by  their  wealth  redeem  persons  captured  by 
robbers,  or  take  upon  themselves  the  debts  of  their 
friends,  or  render  them  aid  in  marriage-portions  for 
their  daughters,  or  help  them  in  acquiring  or  in- 
creasing property.  I  therefore  wonder  what  came 
into  the  mind  of  Theophrastus  in  the  book  that  he 
wrote  about  Eiches,^  in  which  he  said  many  things 
admirably  well,  but  that  to  which  I  now  refer, 
absurdly.  For  he  is  prolix  in  praise  of  the  magnifi- 
cence and  elaborateness  of  popular  entertainments, 
and  regards  the  means  of  meeting  such  expenses  as 
the  chief  advantage  of  wealth.  But  in  my  mind  the 
advantage  derived  from  the  liberality  of  which  I 
have  given  a  few  examples  seems  much  greater  and 
more  certain.  How  much  more  soberly  and  justly 
does  Aristo  of  Ceos  ^  reprove  us  for  not  being  sur- 

1  A  lost  book. 

2  Latin  (in  many  of  the  best  editions),  Aristo  Ceus;  (in  all 
extant  manuscripts  and  early  editions)  Aristoteles.     Aristotle  not 


142  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

I  i)rised  at  these  outpourings  of  money  which  are  made 
i  to  propitiate  the   multitude  !     "  If  those  besieged 
;  by  an  enemy,"  he  says,  "  are  forced  to  pay  a  pound  ^ 
!  for  a  pint  ^  of  water,  at  the  first  hearing  it  seems 
i  incredible  and  all  are  amazed ;  yet  when  they  con- 
'  sider  the  case  they  excuse  i±  on  the  plea  of  neces- 
:  sity  ;  but  in  this  immense  waste  and  these  boundless 
expenditures  we  feel   no  great   astonishment,  and 
that  too,  though  neither  is  want  thus  relieved  nor 
respectability  enhanced,  and  the  very  delight  of  the 
multitude  is  transient  and  lasts  but  a  little  while, 
and,  withal,  is  felt  only  by  the  most  fickle,  whose 
memory  of  the  enjoyment  expires  as  soon  as  they 
are  satiated."     He  fittingly  concludes  that  "  these 
things  are  gratifying  to  boys,  and  weak  women,  and 
slaves,  and  to  free  men  who  bear  the  nearest  resem- 
blance to  slaves ;   but  that  they  cannot   by  any 
means  be  approved  by  a  serious  man  and  one  who 
weighs  what  is  done  by  fixed  principles."    Yet  I  am 
aware  that  in  our  city  it  is  an  old  tradition,  and  one 
that  has  come  down  from  good  times,  that  lavish- 
only  has  no  sentiment  like  this  in  his  extant  writings,  but  can 
hardly  have  had  in  his  time  the  material  for  such  a  description 
of  senseless  extravagance.     The  public  entertainments  of  his  age, 
especially  in  Athens,  while  redolent  of  superior  culture,  were  com- 
paratively inexpensive.    Aristo  of  Ceos  wrote  a  treatise  (now  lost) 
on  Vain  Glory  (irepl  Kevodo^las),   from  which  this  passage  may 
very  probably  have  been  quoted.     But  the  reading  which  gives 
his  name  is  at  best  an  ingenious  and  not  unlikely  conjecture. 

1  Mina,  in  value  a  little  more  than  four  pounds  sterling. 

2  Sextariiis,  about  a  pint. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  143 

ness  in  the  aedileship  may  be  expected  even  froml 
the  best  men.^  Thus  Publius  Crassus,  rich  equally 
in  his  surname  and  in  his  estate,  gave  the  most 
costly  public  entertainments  in  his  aedileship,  and 
shortly  afterward  Lucius  Crassus,  with  Quintus 
Mucins,  the  most  moderate  of  all  men,  for  his  col- 
league, served  through  a  most  magnificent  aedile- 
ship ;  and  in  like  manner  Caius  Claudius,  the  son  of 
Appius,  and  many  afterward,  the  Luculli,  Horten- 
sius,  Silanus.  Publius  Lentulus,  when  I  was  consul, 
surpassed  all  that  went  before  him.  Scaurus  imi- 
tated him.  But  the  entertainments  given  by  my 
friend  Pompey  in  his  second  consulship  were  the 
most  magnificent.  With  reference  to  all  these 
matters  you  see  what  my  opinion  is. 

17.  Yet  the  suspicion  of  penuriousness  must  bsi 
avoided.  Mamercus,  a  very  rich  man,  by  declining 
to  be  a  candidate  for  the  aedileship,  lost  his  election 
as  consul.  If  such  expenditure,  then,  is  demanded 
by  the  people,  and  though  not  desired,  at  least 
approved  by  good  citizens,  it  is  to  be  incurred,  yet 

1  Of  course,  popularity  in  an  aedileship  contributed  largelj'  to 
one's  success  as  a  candidate  for  higher  offices,  and  in  the  best  days 
of  the  republic  an  aspirant  for  the  popular  favor  may,  as  aedile, 
have  made'  for  the  entertainment  of  the  public  an  expenditure 
fully  level  with  his  ability.  But  before  Cicero's  time  it  had  be- 
come common  for  an  aedile  to  incur  in  that  office  heavy  debts,  to 
be  liquidated,  if  ever,  when  as  propraetor  or  proconsul  he  should 
be  able  to  fill  his  exchequer  with  provincial  spoils.  Debts  thus 
contracted  were  regarded  as  an  obligatory  mortgage  on  the  popu- 
lar suffrage,  by  which  the  debtor  should  have  the  opportunity  of 
reimbursing  himself  for  his  outlay  to  please  the  people. 


144  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

in  proportion  to  one's  ability,  as  in  my  own  case  ;  ^ 
and  if  at  any  time  some  end  of  great  importance  and 
j  value  can  be  gained  by  largesses  to  the  people,  they 
may  be  bestowed,  as  in  the  recent  instance  in  which 
Orestes  gained  great  honor  by  a  public  dinner  in  the 
streets  under  the  name  of  a  tithe-offering.^  Nor  did 
any  one  find  fault  with  Marcus  Seius,  because  in  a 
time  of  dearth  he  gave  the  people  corn  for  a  penny  ^ 
a  peck ;  *  for  he  thus  freed  himself  from  great  and 
inveterate  odium  by  a  lavishness  not  unbecoming 
inasmuch  as  he  was  an  aedile,  and  not  very  ex- 
travagant. But  it  was  to  the  highest  honor  of  my 
friend  Milo  when,  not  so  very  long  ago,  by  gladia- 
tors bought  for  the  sake  of  the  state  which  was 
dependent  on  my  safety,  he  suppressed  all  the  plots 
and  mad  endeavors  of  Publius  Clodius.^  There  is, 
therefore,  sufficient  reason  for  profuseness,  if  it  is 

1  Cicero,  as  aedile,  gave  three  public  games. 

^  The  Romans  frequently  offered  to  some  god,  generally  to 
Hercules,  a  tithe  of  their  property  on  the  eve  of  any  great  enter- 
prise, or  of  their  gains,  in  case  of  any  signal  success.  But  a  small 
part  of  such  an  offering  was  consumed  in  sacrifice,  and  the  rest 
was  commonly  utilized  for  a  magnificent  public  festival.  The 
words  polluceo  and  polluctura  as  applied  to  such  feasts  may  au- 
thorize the  supposition  (though  I  know  of  no  other  ground  for  it) 
that  Pollux  may  have  had  in  earlier  time  the  honor  which  was 
subsequently  paid  to  Hercules. 

3  As,  about  half  an  English  penny. 

*  Modius,  a  little  less  than  a  peck. 

6  Clodius  was  undoubtedly  the  greater  ruffian  and  the  worse 
man  of  the  two;  but  it  is  only  by  shutting  out  all  testimony  save 
that  of  Cicero's  magnificent  defence  of  Milo,  that  we  can  regard 
Lim  as  a  pre-eminently  law-abiding  and  patriotic  citizen. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  145 

either  necessary  or  useful.     Yet  in  expenditures  of 
this  sort  the  rule  of  moderation  is  the  best.     Lucius  i 
Philippus,  indeed,  the  son  of  Quintus,  a  man  of 
great  genius  and  of  the  highest  eminence,  used  to  i 
boast  that,  without  giving  any  public  entertainment,  | 
he  had  been  elected  to  all  tlie  offices   that  were  | 
regarded  as   the   most   honorable.     Cotta  said  the 
same ;  so  did  Curio.     I  can  also  to  a  certain  extent  ^ 
make  the  same  boast ;   for,  as  compared  with  the 
importance  of  the  offices  which  I  obtained  without 
any  opposing  votes  ^  in  the  years  at  which  I  became  : 
eligible  ^  to  them  respectively,  —  which  was  not  the  i 
case  with  either  of  those  M'hom  I  have  named, — 
the  expense  of  my  aedileship  was  very  small     At  i 
the  same  time,  the  more  desirable  expenditures  in  ' 
connection  with  public  office  are  for  moles,  docks, 
harbors,  aqueducts,  and  whatever  may  be  of  service  ■ 
to  the  community.     Although  what  is  given  per-  ' 
sonally,  as  it  were,  into  men's  hands,  confers  more 
immediate   gratification,   the    expense   incurred   in , 
public  works  is  more  thankworthy.     I  blame  the 
cost  bestowed  on  theatres,  porticos,  new  temples, 

^  Cicero  never  attained  the  censorship,  to  which,  by  custom 
tantamount  to  constitutional  law,  and  seldom  departed  from, 
ex-consuls  alone  were  eligible. 

2  The  vote  was  taken  by  centuries,  so  that  a  large  opposing 
minority  might  be  consistent  with  a  nominally  unanimous  suffrage. 

*  The  normal  age  at  which  one  was  eligible  to  the  quaestorship 
was  thirty  ;   to  the  aedileship,  thirty-seven  ;  to  the  praetorship, 
forty ;  to  the  consulship,  forty-three.     These  rules  had  sometimes 
been  disregarded,  but  were  generally  adhered  to. 
10 


146  Cicero  de  OJlciis. 

with  diffidence  on  account  of  my  regard  for  Pom- 
pey's  memory ;  ^  but  the  wisest  authorities  dis- 
approve of  such  expenditures,  as  did  this  very 
I  Panaetius  whom  in  my  present  treatise  I  have  fol- 
lowed, not  translated  ;  as  did  also  Demetrius  Phale- 
reus,  who  finds  fault  with  Pericles  for  throwing 
away  so  much  money  on  that  famous  vestibule  of 
the  Parthenon.^  But  this  entire  subject  is  carefully 
discussed  in  my  book  on  the  Eepublic.^  The  whole 
system  of  such  extravagant  largesses,  in  general 
worthy  of  censure,  is  under  certain  circumstances 
necessary,  —  yet,  when  it  becomes  necessary,  the 
■expense  must  be  apportioned  to  one's  means,  and 
kept  within  moderate  limits. 

18.  In  the  other  style  of  free  expenditure  which 
proceeds  from  liberality,  we  ought  not  to  be  equally 
ready  to  give  where  the  cases  are  unlike.  The  case 
of  him  who  is  laboring  under  misfortune  differs 
from  that  of  him  who,  without  any  actual  stress 
of  adverse  circumstances,  seeks  to  improve  his 
condition.  Generosity  ought  to  be  more  readily 
bestowed  on  the  unfortunate,  unless  perchance  they 
deserve  what  they  suffer.  Yet  with  regard  to  those 
who  desire  assistance,  not  to  be  saved  from  utter 
ruin,  but  to  reach  a  higher  position,  we  ought  to 

1  Pompey  erected  the  most  splendid  of  the  then  existing  thea- 
tres, and  temples  to  Venus  and  Victoria. 

2  The  Propylaea,  said  to  have  cost  a  sum  equivalent  to  two 
millions  of  our  money. 

8  This  discussion  is  not  found  in  any  of  the  portions  of  the  Be 
lie  Publica  that  hare  been  recovered. 


Cicero  de  OJidis.  147 

be  by  do  means  niggardly,  but  to  be  judicious  and 
careful  in  selecting  suitable  subjects  for  our  bounty. 
For  Ennius  says  very  fittingly :  — 

"Good  done  amiss  I  count  as  evil  done." 

But  what  is  given  to  a  good  and  grateful  man 
yields  us  in  return  a  revenue  both  from  him  and 
from  others.  For  when  one  does  not  give  at  hap- 
hazard, generosity  confers  the  highest  pleasure,  and 
most  persons  bestow  upon  it  the  greater  applause, 
because  the  kindheartedness  of  any  one  who  holds 
a  conspicuous  station  is  the  common  refuge  for  all. 
Care  must  be  taken,  therefore,  that  we  confer  on 
as  many  as  possible  benefits  of  such  a  nature  that 
their  memory  may  be  transmitted  to  children  and 
posterity,  so  that  they  too  cannot  be  ungrateful. 
All,  indeed,  hate  him  who  is  unmindful  of  a  benefit 
received,  and  think  themselves  wronged  when  gen- 
erosity is  thus  discouraged ;  and  he  who  is  thus 
ungrateful  becomes  the  common  enemy  of  persons 
of  slender  fortunes.^  Moreover,  the  liberality  of 
which  I  now  speak  is  of  service  also  to  the  state 
in  redeeming  captives  from  slavery,  and  in  provid- 

1  Injustice  is  done  to  Cicero  when  these  interested  motives  to 
beneficence  are  regarded  as  standing  alone.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  in  the  Fii-st  Book  the  duty  of  beneficence  is  urged 
on  grounds  of  intrinsic  right ;  while  expediency  is  the  express 
and  sole  subject  of  the  Second  Book,  in  which  it  is  his  aim  to 
show  that  interest  and  duty  point  in  the  same  direction,  —  that 
the  selfish  man  sins  against  himself  no  less  than  against  his 
neighbor. 


148  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

ing  needy  persons  with  the  comforts  of  life,  which 
used  to  be  very  commonly  done  by  men  of  sen- 
atorial rank,i  as  .we  find  written  out  in  full  in 
the  speech  of  Crassus.^  This  habitual  practice  of 
charity  I  regard  as  far  preferable  to  the  giving 
of  public  shows.  The  former  is  the  part  of  sub- 
stantial and  prominent  citizens;  the  latter  seems 
to  belong  to  those  who  fawn  on  the  people,  and 
tickle,  so  to  speak,  the  fickleness  of  the  multitude 
by  low  pleasure.  But  it  will  be  becoming  for  one, 
while  munificent  in  giving,  to  be  also  not  severe 
in  exacting,  and  in  all  contracts,  in  selling  and 
buying,  in  hiring  and  leasing,  in  questions  arising 
out  of  adjoining  houses  and  estates,^  to  be  fair  and 
accommodating,  freely  making  concessions  from  his 
own  right,  avoiding  litigation  as  much  as  he  can 

1  So  long  as  there  was  a  wide  distinction  between  the  orders 
of  the  Roman  state,  the  patricians,  in  general,  took  a  generous  care 
of  the  interests  of  their  respective  clients  and  dependents.  Indeed, 
the  very  tei-m  patrician  is  an  enduring  record  of  kindly  relations 
between  the  higher  and  the  lower  orders. 

'^  Lucius  Licinius  Crassus  (§  13).  The  reference  is  undoubtedly 
to  Ms  speech  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  judicial  functions  from 
the  equites  to  the  Senate. 

8  There  were  subtleties  in  the  Roman  law  as  to  the  falling 
of  water  from  the  eaves  of  houses  (stillicidium),  the  preservation 
or  obstruction  of  light,  and  various  matters  of  dispute  that  might 
arise  and  in  all  time  do  arise  between  owners  of  contiguous  houses. 
Between  estates  outside  of  the  city  there  was  legally  a  space  of 
five  or  six  feet  in  which  each  owner  had  a  right  of  way,  and 
neither  a  right  of  occupancy  for  his  own  uses.  Rights  of  way 
and  other  easements  were  attached,  also,  to  many  private  estates. 
Hence  a  fruitful  field  for  litigation. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  149 

without  excessive  sacrifice,  and  perhaps  even  be-i 
yoncl  what  might  seem  the  proper  limit.  For  it 
is  not  only  generous,  but  sometimes  profitable  alsoi 
to  abate  a  little  from  one's  rightful  claims.  Yet 
reference  must  be  had  to  one's  own  estate,  which 
cannot  be  suffered  to  go  to  ruin  without  disgrace 
to  the  owner;  but  private  property  must  be  so 
cared  for  as  to  leave  no  suspicion  of  penuriousness 
and  avarice.  Indeed,  the  ability  of  being  generous 
without  robbing  one's  self  of  his  patrimony  is  the 
greatest  revenue  that  money  can  yield.  Theo- 
phrastus  also  rightly  commends  hospitality ;  for  it 
is,  as  it  seems  to  me,  very  becoming  that  the  houses 
of  distinguished  men  should  be  open  to  distin- 
guished guests ;  and  it  is  even  for  the  honor  of  the 
state  that  foreigners  should  not  lack  this  kind  of 
liberality  in  our  city.  It  is  also  in  the  highest 
degree  expedient  for  those  who  desire  to  obtain 
great  influence  by  honorable  means  to  avail  them- 
selves of  help  and  favor  among  foreign  nations 
through  their  guests.  Theophrastus,  indeed,  says 
that  Cimon,  at  Athens,  was  hospitable  not  to 
strangers  only,  but  to  all  of  his  own  district  of 
Laciadae,^  making  such  arrangements  and  giving 
such  orders  to  his  farm-servants,  that  every  atten- 
tion should  be  shown  to  any  citizen  of  that  district 
who  might  turn  aside  to  his  country  residence. 

1  The  territory  of  Attica  (including  Athens)  was  divided  into 
one  hundred  and  seventy-four  5ij/*ot,  or  districts.  The  demos  of 
Laciadae  was  outside  of  the  city. 


150  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

19.  But  the  benefits  which  are  bestowed,  not  by 
gift,  but  by  personal  service,  are  conferred,  some- 
times on  the  whole  state,  sometimes  on  individual 
citizens.  To  protect  the  rights  of  others,  to  aid 
them  by  legal  advice,  and  by  this  sort  of  knowledge 
and  skill  to  be  of  service  to  as  many  as  possible, 
tends  very  largely  to  the  increase  of  one's  influence 
and  popularity.  Thus  among  many  things  to  be 
commended  in  the  days  of  our  ancestors,  it  is 
worthy  of  note  that  the  knowledge  and  the  inter- 
pretation of  our  admirablj^  constituted  civil  law 
were  always  held  in  the  highest  honor.  This  sci- 
ence, until  the  present  unsettled  times,  the  leading 
men  of  the  state  retained  as  one  of  their  special 
prerogatives.  Now,  as  is  the  case  with  civil  offices 
and  with  all  grades  of  rank,  its  prestige  is  destroyed, 
and  this  the  more  shamefully,  as  it  took  place  in 
the  lifetime  of  him  who  would  have  transcended 
in  legal  learning  all  his  predecessors  whom  he 
equalled  in  rank.^  This  kind  of  service,  then,  is 
gratifying  to  many,  and  is  adapted  to  bind  men 
by  the  ties  of  benefit.  Closely  allied  to  skill  in 
interpreting  the  law  is  oratory,  which  even  sur- 
passes it  both  as  a  grave  pursuit  and  as  a  personal 
accomplishment.  For  what  stands  before  eloquence, 
whether  in  the  admiration  of  its  hearers,  the  hope 

1  Servius  Sulpicius,  after  the  death  of  Mucius  Scaevola  the 
most  learned  and  celebrated  jurisconsult.  He  died  but  a  year 
before  this  treatise  was  written,  and  Cicero  pronounced  a  eulogy 
on  him  in  the  Senate. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  151 

of  those  who  need  its  aid,  or  the  gratitude  of  those 
defended  by  it?  To  this,  therefore,  our  ancestors 
assigned  the  first  rank  among  civil  professions. 
There  is,  then,  an  extended  range  of  beneficial 
services  and  of  patronage  open  to  the  eloquent 
man,  who  williugly  appears  in  the  courts,  and,  as 
was  the  custom  in  the  time  of  our  fathers,  without 
reluctance  and  without  compensation  ^  defends  the 
causes  of  the  many  who  seek  his  aid.  The  subject 
was  reminding  me  to  deplore  here,  as  elsewhere  in 
my  writings,  the  discontinuance,  not  to  say  the 
extinction,  of  eloquence,  —  only  I  should  dread 
the  appearance  of  making  complaint  in  my  own 
behalf  But  yet  we  see  how  many  orators  have 
passed  away,  in  how  few  is  there  good  promise, 
in  how  much  fewer  ability,  in  how  many  nothing 
save  presumption.  Yet  while  not  all,  indeed  only 
a  few  can  be  either  skilled  in  the  law  or  eloquent, 
still  one  may  render  service  to  many,  by  canvass- 
ing in  their  behalf  for  appointments,  by  appear- 
ing in  their  interest  before  judges  and  magistrates, 
by  watching  the  progress  of  their  cases  in  court, 
and  soliciting  for  them  the  aid  of  legal  counsellors 
and  of  advocates.  Those  who  do  thus,  obtain  the 
largest  amount  of  good  will,  and  their  labor  has 

1  The  Roman  law  prohibited  advocates  from  taking  fee  or 
reward.  There  is  no  proof  that  Cicero  was  ever  paid  directly 
or  indirectly  for  his  services  as  an  advocate,  though  undoubtedly 
pi-esents  and  legacies  from  those  who  had  enjoyed  the  benefit 
of  his  services  may  have  been  among  the  sources  of  his  wealth. 


152  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

a  most  widely  extended  influence.  Nor  need  they 
here  to  be  admonished  (for  it  is  obvious),  that 
they  take  heed  lest  while  they  desire  to  assist 
some,  they  disoblige  others.  For  under  such  cir- 
cumstances they  are  liable  to  hurt  the  feelings 
of  those  whom  it  is  either  morally  wrong  or  inex- 
pedient for  them  to  wound.  If  they  do  this  unwit- 
tingly, it  is  the  result  of  carelessness ;  if  knowingly, 
of  recklessness.  You  must  even  resort  to  apology 
wherever  you  can,  to  those  to  whom  you  unwillingly 
give  offence,  showing  them  why  what  you  did  was 
necessary,  so  that  you  could  not  have  done  other- 
wise, and  promising  them  that  the  omission  shall 
be  compensated  by  other  services  and  kind  offices. 

20.  But  while  in  giving  assistance  to  men  refer- 
ence is  usually  had  either  to  character  or  to  condi- 
tion, it  is  easy  to  say,  and  men  commonly  do  say, 
that  in  conferring^  favors  they  are  influenced  by 
the  character,  not  by  the  outward  condition  of  their 
beneficiaries.  This  mode  of  speaking  sounds  well. 
Yet  who  is  there,  who  in  rendering  his  service  does 
not  prefer  the  cause  of  a  rich  and  influential  man 
to  that  of  a  man  without  influence,  though  of  signal 
excellence  ?  Our  wiU,  for  the  most  part,  inclines 
the  more  strongly  toward  him  from  whom  we  may 
expect  the  more  prompt  and  speedy  remuneration. 
Yet  we  ought  to  look  more  carefully  at  the  nature 

1  Latin,  collocandis,  investing,  i.  e.  conferring  favors  with  a 
view  to  the  revenue  in  influence  and  popularity  which  they  may 
bring  in  return. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  153 

of  things.  Undoubtedly  tlmt  poor  man,  if  lie  is 
a  good  man,  even  if  he  cannot  return  the  favor, 
can  bear  it  faithfully  in  mind ;  and  it  is  well  said, 
whoever  he  be  that  first  said  it,  "He  who  has 
money  has  not  repaid  it;  he  who  has  repaid  it 
has  it  not :  but  he  who  has  returned  kindness  has 
it,  and  he  who  has  it  has  returned  it."  Now  those 
who  think  themselves  rich,  respectable,  fortunate, 
are  unwilling  to  be  placed  under  obligation  by 
kindness  rendered,  nay,  they  even  think  that  they 
have  bestowed  a  favor  when  they  have  received 
one  however  great,  and  they  imagine  that  some- 
thing is  also  demanded  or  expected  of  them, — 
still  more,  it  seems  to  them  as  bad  as  death  to 
have  it  said  that  they  are  indebted  to  any  one's 
patronage,  or  to  be  called  any  one's  clients.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  man  of  slender  means  just 
spoken  of,  thinking  that  whatever  is  done  for  him 
is  done  from  regard  to  himself,  not  to  his  outward 
condition,  endeavors  to  appear  grateful,  not  only 
to  him  who  has  deserved  his  thanks,  but  also, — 
for  he  needs  many  helpers,  —  to  those  from  whom 
he  expects  similar  favors.  Nor,  if  perchance  he 
can  render  some  good  office  in  return,  does  he  mag- 
nify it,  but  rather  underrates  it  in  what  he  says 
about  it.  This  also  is  to  be  observed,  that  if  you 
defend  a  rich  and  successful  man,  the  favor  does 
not  extend  further  than  to  the  man  himself,  or, 
peradventure,  to  his  children ;  while  if  you  defend 
a  poor,  yet  upright  and  self-respecting  man,  all  men 


154  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

of  humble  condition  -who  are  not  had  —  and  there 
is  a  great  proportion  of  these  among  the  people  — 
see  in  you  a  defence  prepared  for  their  exigencies. 
Therefore  I  think  a  kindness  better  invested  with 
good  men  than  with  men  of  fortune.  In  fine,  we 
should  endeavor  to  meet  the  claims  of  those  of  every 
class;  but  if  it  come  to  a  competition  between  rival 
claimants  for  our  service,  Themistocles  may  be  well 
quoted  as  an  authority,  who,  when  asked  whetlier 
he  would  marry  his  daughter  to  a  good  poor  man, 
or  to  a  rich  man  of  less  respectable  character, 
replied,  "I,  indeed,  prefer  the  man  who  lacks 
money  to  the  money  that  lacks  a  man."  But  the 
moral  sense  is  corrupted  and  depraved  by  the 
admiration  of  wealth.  Yet  of  what  concern  to  any 
one  of  us  is  another  man's  great  fortune  ?  Perhaps 
it  is  of  benefit  to  him  who  has  it,  —  not  always, 
however.  But  suppose  it  to  be  of  benefit  to  him,  — 
he  may,  indeed,  have  more  to  spend ;  but  how  is  he 
made  any  better  ?  If,  however,  he  be  really  a  good 
man,  let  not  his  wealth  be  a  hindrance,  only  let 
it  not  be  a  motive  for  your  serving  him.  The 
decisive  question  must  be,  not  how  rich  one  is,  but 
what  sort  of  a  man  he  is.  But  the  ultimate  rule 
in  conferring  favors  and  rendering  service  is,  never 
to  make  any  effort  against  the  right,  or  in  belialf  of 
the  wrong;  for  the  basis  of  enduring  praise  and 
reputation  is  justice,  without  which  there  can  be 
nothing  worthy  of  commendation. 

21.  Having  now  spoken  of  the  kinds  of  good  offices 


Cicero  de  Ojffldis.  155 

that  concern  individuals,  I  must  next  discuss  those 
which  have  reference  to  a  body  of  men  and  to  the 
state.  Of  these  a  part  are  such  as  accrue  to  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  community ;  a  part,  such  as 
affect  individuals,  though  in  the  form  of  public 
service.  Both  interests  ought  certainly  to  be  cared 
for,  that  of  individuals  no  less  than  of  the  commu- 
nity at  large,  yet  in  such  a  way  that  what  is  done 
may  be  of  benefit,  or  at  all  events,  not  of  injury  to 
the  state.  The  distribution  of  corn  by  Caius  Grac- 
chus ^  was  excessive,  and  tended  to  drain  the  public 
treasury ;  that  of  Marcus  Octavius  ^  was  moderate, 
and  both  within  the  easy  ability  of  the  state  and 
necessary  to  the  people,  —  therefore  a  beneficial 
measure  both  to  the  individual  citizens  who  re- 
ceived the  public  bounty  and  to  the  state.  He  who 
administers  the  affairs  of  the  state  must  take  special 
care  that  every  man  be  defended  in  the  possession 
of  what  rightfully  belongs  to  him,  and  that  there 
be  no  encroachment  on  private  property  by  public 

1  Caius  Gracchus,  as  tribune  of  the  people,  procured  the  pas- 
sage of  a  law  by  which  every  resident  of  the  city  who  should 
personally  appear  at  the  Capitol  might  buy  five  modii  (or  pecks) 
of  corn  each  month,  at  less  than  half  the  average  price,  therefore 
at  much  less  than  cost.  The  tendency,  and  of  course  a  prime 
object,  of  this  measure  was  to  bring  into  the  city,  and  under  the 
influence  of  the  popular  leaders,  large  numbers  of  the  poorer  popu- 
lation in  the  rural  districts. 

2  Tribune  of  the  people  not  long  after  Caius  Gracchus.  He 
procured  the  passage  of  a  law  raising  the  price  of  corn  from  the 
public  granaries  to  a  rate  which  arrested  the  depletion  of  the 
treasury. 


156  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

authority.  Philippus,  during  his  tribunate,  when  he 
proposed  the  agrarian  law  (which  he  readily  suffered 
to  be  rejected,  behaving  in  the  matter  with  great 
moderation),  while  in  defending  the  measure  he 
said  many  things  adapted  to  cajole  the  people,  did 
mischief  by  the  ill-meant  statement  that  there  were 
not  in  the  city  two  thousand  men  that  had  any 
property.  It  was  a  criminal  utterance,  tending  to 
an  equal  division  of  property,  than  which  what 
more  ruinous  policy  can  there  be  ?  Indeed,  states 
and  municipalities  were  established  chiefly  to  in- 
sure the  undisturbed  possession  of  private  property ; 
for  though  under  the  guidance  of  Nature  men  were 
brought  together,  still  it  was  with  the  hope  of  guar- 
dianship for  their  property  that  they  sought  the 
defence  of  cities.  Pains  should  also  be  taken  that 
there  may  be  no  need  of  levying  a  tax  on  property,^ 
which  in  the  time  of  our  ancestors  was  often  done 
on  account  of  the  poverty  of  the  treasury  and  the 
frequency  of  ware.  Against  such  a  contingency 
provision  should  be  made  long  beforehand.  But  in 
case  such  a  tax  should  be  necessary  for  any  state  — 
for  I  would  rather  speak  thus  than  forebode  evil  for 
our  own  state,  and  I  am  treating  not  of  our  own,  but 
of  states  in  general  —  pains  must  be  taken  to  make 

1  For  one  hundred  and  four  years,  from  the  close  of  the  Mace- 
donian war  (b.  c.  147),  which  brought  an  immense  amount  of 
treasure  into  the  public  coffers,  till  the  very  year  succeeding  Cicero's 
death,  no  property-tax  was  levied,  the  spoils  of  war  and  the  trib- 
ute from  the  provinces  sufficing  for  the  public  expenditure. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  157 

all  the  citizens  understand  that  in  order  to  remain] 
secure  they  must  yield  to  this  necessity.  More-' 
over,  it  will  be  the  duty  of  those  who  govern  the 
state  to  take  care  that  there  be  a  full  supply  of 
everything  requisite  for  the  public  service.  How 
this  provision  is  commonly  made  and  how  it  ought 
to  be  made,  there  is  no  need  of  discussing,  —  it  is  a 
perfectly  plain  matter;  the  subject  required  to  be 
merely  alluded  to. 

But  the  chief  thing  in  every  department  of  public 
business  and  official  administration  is  that  even  the 
least  suspicion  of  greediness  for  money  be  put  at 
rest.  Caius  Pontius,^  the  Samnite,  said,  "  Oh  that 
Fortune  had  reserved  me  and  delayed  my  birth  till 
the  time,  should  it  ever  come,  when  tlie  Eomans 
had  begun  to  take  bribes  !  I  would  not  then  have 
suffered  them  to  hold  their  supremacy  any  longer." 
Many  generations  must,  indeed,  have  been  waited 
for ;  for  only  of  late  this  evil  has  invaded  our  state. 
Therefore  I  am  glad  that  Pontius  lived  then  rather 
than  now,  if  indeed  he  was  so  much  of  a  man.  It 
is  not  yet  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  ^  since 
Lucius  Piso's  law  about  extortion  was  passed, 
whereas  there  had  been  no  such  law  before.  But 
there  have   since   been  so  many  laws  each   more 

1  The  Samnite  general  who  defeated  the  Roman  anny  at  the 
Caudine  Pass,  and  many  years  later  was  himself  defeated  by 
Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  taken  prisoner,  led  in  triumph,  and 
beheaded. 

^  About  a  century  and  a  half  after  the  death  of  Pontius. 


158  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

severe  than  the  preceding,  so  many  accused,  so 
many  penally  sentenced,  so  great  an  Italian  war  ^ 
caused  by  fear  of  judicial  proceedings,  such  a  pil- 
laging and  plundering  of  our  allies  ^  when  laws  and 
courts  were  suspended,  that  we  owe  what  strength 
we  have  to  the  weakness  of  others,  not  to  our  own 
virtue. 

22.  Panaetius  praises  Africanus  because  he  ab- 
stained from  all  illicit  gain.  Why  should  he  not 
praise  him  ?  There  were  in  him  other  greater  qual- 
ities ;  the  merit  of  abstaining  from  illicit  gain  be- 
longs not  only  to  the  man,  but  to  those  times. 
Paulus  obtained  all  the  immense  treasure  of  Mace- 
donia. He  brought  so  much  money  into  the  public 
treasury,  that  the  booty  acquired  by  that  one  com- 
mander put  an  end  to  the  property-tax.  But  to  his 
own  house  he  brought  nothing  save   the   eternal 

1  Commonly  called  the  Social  War.  Marcus  Livius  Drusus 
had,  while  tribune  of  the  people,  procured  the  passage  of  a  law 
providing  for  inquiry  into  the  corrupt  practices  of  the  courts, 
which  had  in  many  instances  acquitted  persons  justly  charged 
with  bribery  and  extortion.  He  had  also  procured  the  passage  of 
laws  conferring  certain  privileges  —  with  a  view  to  ultimate  citi- 
zenship—  on  the  Italian  allies.  The  Senate,  under  the  influence 
of  those  who  feared  an  honest  judiciary,  annulled  all  the  laws  that 
had  been  enacted  under  the  auspices  of  Drusus,  on  the  pretext 
that  they  had  been  carried  against  the  auspices,  and  in  defiance 
of  certain  provisions  by  statute  requiring  a  seventeen  days'  pro- 
mulgation of  laws  before  they  could  be  passed,  and  forbidding  the 
massing  of  several  distinct  clauses  in  the  same  vote.  The  allies 
were,  of  course,  thwarted  of  their  expectations,  and  hence  the 
Social  War. 

*  During  the  dictatorships  of  Sulla  and  Caesar. 


Cicero  de  OJlcns.  159 

memory  of  his  name.  Africanus  imitated  his  father, 
being  none  the  richer  for  the  overthrow  of  Carthage. 
What  think  you  ?  Was  Lucius  Mummius,  his  col- 
league in  the  censorship,  any  the  richer  when  he 
had  destroyed  to  its  foundations  a  city  of  vast 
wealth  ?  ^  He  chose  to  embellish  Italy  rather  than 
his  own  house ;  ^  though  indeed  in  the  embellish- 
ment of  Italy  his  house  also  seems  to  me  more  truly 
embellished.  There  is,  then,  —  to  return  to  the 
point  whence  I  made  this  digression,  —  no  fouler 
vice  than  the  greed  of  money,  especially  in  the  case 
of  the  leading  citizens  who  govern  the  state ;  for  to 
turn  the  state  into  a  source  of  profit  is  not  only  vile, 
but  even  outrageous  and  execrable.  Thus  the  oracle 
which  the  Pythian  Apollo  pronounced, 

"  By  naught  but  greed  of  gain  will  Sparta  perish," 

he  seems  to  have  proclaimed  not  to  the  Lacedae-  > 
monians  alone,  but  to  all  rich  nations.  But  by  no 
means  can  those  who  preside  over  public  affairs 
more  readily  conciliate  the  favor  of  the  multitude 
than  by  abstinence  from  the  acquisition  of  wealth 
and  the  moderate  use  of  what  they  have. 

Those,  therefore,  who  desire  to  be  popular,  and 

1  Corinth. 

2  He  flooded  Rome  with  the  richest  spoils  of  Grecian  art ;  but  i 
though  by  no  means  a  man  of  pure  life,  he  rigidly  abstained  from 
participating  in  the  booty  or  gain  of  his  conquest.     Pliny  says  of 
him,  that  he  iilled  the  city  with  trophies  of  conquered  Achaia,  yet 
left  not  a  dowry  for  his  daughter. 


160  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

with  that  view  either  attempt  agrarian  measures,^ 
that  the  occupants  of  the  public  domains  may  be 
driven  from  their  homes,  or  advocate  the  remission 
of  debts,^  are  undermining  the  foundations  of  the 
state,  —  in  the  first  place,  harmony,  which  cannot 
exist  when  money  is  taken  from  some  and  debts 
are  cancelled  for  others  ;   in  the  next  place,  equity, 

^  The  agrarian  laws  that  have  so  large  a  place  in  Eonian  his- 
tory are  often  misunderstood  in  consequence  of  a  misapprehension 
of  the  Latin  terms  possessor  and  possessio.     These  laws  proposed 
the  eviction,  in  many  instances,  of  possessors,  but  not  of  owners; 
Possessio  means  not  ownership,  but  occupancy.     The  lands  ob- 
tained by  conquest  were  for  the  most  part  leased  on  what  were 
understood  to  be  and  what  we  should  call  perpetual  leases,  on 
condition  of  the  payment  of  one  tenth  or  one  fifth  of  the  annual 
revenue  of  the  estate  into  the  public  treasury,  —  a  condition  which 
after  a  time  lapsed  into  disuse  and  oblivion,  so  that  the  lands  thus 
acquired  were   transmitted,  bequeathed,  and   sold,  as   freeholds 
would  have  been,  and  with  no  expectation  that  the  possession 
would  ever  be  disturbed.     The  possessors  thus  had  the  conscious- 
ness of  ownership,  and  the  sympathy  of  the  aristocracy  and  the 
rich  men,  on  their  side  ;  and  though  the  state,  having  never  ceded 
the  fee  of  its  domain,  had,  no  doubt,  a  right  to  take  its  lands 
from  defaulting  tenants  and  give  them  to  the  veterans  or  the  land- 
less plebeians,  still  this  could  not  be  done  without  the  commission 
•  of  virtual  wrong  to  a  large  extent,  and  perhaps  reducing  to  utter 
I  penury  some  who  had  felt  as  secure  in  the  possession  of  their  prop- 
,  erty  as  if  it  had  come  down  to  them  in  an  unbroken  line  of  in- 
heritance from  the  beginning  of  time.     We  thus  can  reconcile  the 
by  no  means  delusive  show  of  right  and  humanity  on  the  face  of 
'  the  agrarian  laws  with  the  virtuous  detestation  expressed  for  them 
I  by  not  a  few  law-abiding  Romans. 

2  Novae  tabulae,  or  the  general  remission  or  scaling  down  of 
debts,  was,  in  the  latter  days  of  the  Roman  republic,  a  frequent 
demand  of  demagogues  and  of  their  followers  and  dupes. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  161 

which  is  utterly  destroyed,  if  hindrances  are  laid  in 
the  way  of  men's  keeping  their  own  property.  For, 
as  I  said  above,  this  belongs  to  the  very  idea  of  a 
state  and  a  city,  that  the  protection  of  every  man's 
property  should  be  certain  and  not  a  subject  of  solici- 
tude. Moreover,  by  measures  thus  ruinous  to  the 
state  men  do  not  gain  the  favor  that  they  anticipate. 
He  from  whom  property  is  taken  becomes  their 
enemy.  He  to  whom  it  is  given  conceals  his  desire 
to  receive  it,  and  especially  in  the  case  of  debt  can- 
celled, hides  his  joy,  lest  he  may  be  suspected  of 
having  been  insolvent.  On  the  other  hand,  he  who 
is  wronged  remembers  it,  and  keeps  his  grievance 
in  full  sight.^  Nor  if  those  to  whom  property  is 
wrongfully  given  are  more   numerous   than   those 

1  These  words  of  Cicero  describe  with  wonderful  accuracy  the 
result  of  an  experiment  with  novcie  tabulae  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  A  profligacy  at  which  Eome  in  her  worst  days  might 
have  blushed  found  expression  in  a  national  bankrupt  law  passed 
by  Congress  in  1841,  repealed  in  1843.  By  this  law  fraudulent 
insolvency  had  every  possible  facility  and  inducement.  There 
were  in  every  community  notorious  instances  in  which  men  who 
had  paid  little  or  nothing  except  the  required  legal  fees  showed 
openly  and  shamelessly  the  property  of  Avhich  they  had -cheated 
their  creditors.  In  iine,  any  man  who  chose  to  do  so,  whatever 
his  pecuniary  ability,  could  repudiate  his  debts.  The  law  resulted 
in  the  collapse  and  defeat  of  the  very  party  that  had  hoped  by 
means  of  it  to  consolidate  its  power.  Those  who  had  taken  the  j 
benefit  of  the  law  were  ashamed  of  it  when  they  needed  it  no  ' 
longer  ;  while  those  whom  it  had  wronged  had  no  tolerance  for 
the  authors  of  their  wrong,  —  thus  verifying  to  the  letter  what 
Cicero  says  about  the  effect  of  such  measures  on  the  popularity  of 
their  authors  and  abettors. 

11 


162  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

from  whom  it  has  been  unjustly  taken,  are  they 
therefore  possessed  of  more  influence ;  for  these 
matters  are  determined,  not  by  number,  but  by 
weight.  But  what  justice  is  there  in  a  proceeding 
by  which  he  who  had  no  landed  estate  obtains  an 
estate  that  has  been  in  the  possession  of  the  same 
family  for  many  years,  or  even  generations,  while 
he  who  has  had  the  estate  loses  it  ? 

23.  It  was  for  wrongs  of  this  sort  that  the  Spar- 
tans banished  Lysander  the  ephor,  and  put  to  death 
Agis  the  king,^  the  first  instance  of  the  kind ;  and 
from  that  time  such  dissensions  ensued  that  tyrants 
sprang  up,  and  men  of  high  rank  were  expatriated, 
and  that  most  admirably  constituted  state  fell  to 
pieces.  Nor  did  it  fall  alone,  but  overthrew  also 
the  remainder  of  Greece  by  the  contagion  of  evils 
which,  starting  from  the  Lacedaemonians,  spread 
from  state  to  state.  What  more  ?  Did  not  agrarian 
agitations  destroy  our  citizens  the  Gracchi,  sons  of 
that  most  eminent  man  Tiberius  Gracchus,  grand- 
sons of  Africanus  ?  On  the  other  hand,  praise  is 
most  justly  bestowed  on  Aratus  of  Sicyon,  who, 
when  his  state  had  been  kept  under  oppression  by 
tyrants  for  fifty  years,^  going  from  Argos  to  Sicyon, 

^  Agis,  the  fourth  Spartan  king  of  the  name,  under  whose  gov- 
ernment the  Lysander  here  referred  to  was  ephor.  Their  endeavor 
was  to  procure  the  entire  cancelling  of  debts,  and  the  re-distribu- 
tion of  the  Spartan  territory. 

2  With  only  a  brief  interval,  during  which  the  father  of  Aratus 
had  served  as  one  of  two  chief  magistrates  chosen  by  the  people. 
He  probably  was  not  in  power  long  enough,  or  had  not  sufficient 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  163 

obtained  possession  of  the  city  by  entering  it  se- 
cretly, and  after  suddenly  crushing  the  tyrant  Nico- 
cles,  restored  six  hundred  exiles  who  had  been  the 
richest  men  in  the  state,  and  freed  the  people  by  his 
advent.  Then  when  he  came  to  reflect  on  the  diffi- 
culty about  property  and  its  occupancy,  thinking  it 
very  unjust  that  those  whom  he  had  restored  and 
whose  estates  were  in  the  possession  of  others 
should  remain  poor,  and  at  the  same  time  deeming 
it  hardly  fair  that  possessions  of  fifty  years'  stand- 
ing should  be  disturbed,  because  after  so  long  a  time 
many  estates  were  innocently  held  by  inheritance, 
many  by  purchase,  many  by  dowry,  he  determined 
that  neitlier  ought  the  property  to  be  taken  from 
those  in  possession,  nor  ought  the  former  owners  to 
be  left  without  compensation.  Having  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  was  need  of  money  to  set  this 
matter  right,  he  said  that  he  wanted  to  go  to  Alex- 
andria, and  ordered  everything  to  remain  as  it  was 
till  his  return.  So  he  hastened  to  Ptolemy,  who 
had  been  his  host,  the  second  king  after  the  build- 
ing of  Alexandria.  Having  explained  to  him  his 
purpose  to  restore  freedom  to  his  country,  and  in- 
formed him  of  the  posture  of  affairs,  this  man  most 
worthy  of  celebrity  easily  obtained  from  the  rich 

authority,  to  right  the  wrongs  committed  by  a  series  of  tyrants. 
He  was  killed  by  a  usurper  when  Aratus  was  seven  years  old,  and 
in  the  interval  of  thirteen  years  before  the  successful  expedition  of 
Aratus,  that  usurper  and  his  successor  had  been  slain,  so  that 
Nicocles  was  the  third  in  this  latter  series  of  tyrants. 


164  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

king  the  aid  of  a  large  amount  of  money.  Carrying 
this  to  Sicyou,  he  took  into  his  counsel  fifteen  of 
the  principal  men,  with  whom  he  considered  care- 
fully the  cases  both  of  those  who  held  the  property 
of  others,  and  of  those  who  had  lost  their  own  prop- 
erty, and  managed  by  a  valuation  of  the  estates  to 
persuade  some  of  the  present  occupants  to  resign 
their  estates  and  accept  money  instead,  and  others 
to  account  it  more  to  their  advantage  to  have  the 

j  value  of  their  estates  paid  to  them  than  to  recover 
possession  of  them.  Thus  it  was  brought  about  that 
all  went  their  ways  perfectly  satisfied,  without  any 
ground  of  mutual  complaint.  0  truly  great  man, 
well  worthy  to  have  been  a  native  of  our  own  com- 

,  monwealth !    Thus  it  is  fitting  to  deal  with  citizens; 

!  not,  as  we  have  twice  seen,  to  plant  the  spear  in  the 
market-place,  and  to  submit  the  property  of  citizens 
to  sale  by  the  auctioneer.  That  Greek,  indeed,  as 
was  to  have  been  expected  of  a  wise  and  excellent 
man,  thought  that  the  welfare  of  all  should  be  con- 
sulted ;  and  this  is  the  consummate  reason  and 
wisdom  of  a  good  citizen,  not  to  create  separate  in- 
terests among  those  of  the  same  state,  but  to  hold 
all  together  by  the  same  principles  of  equity.  May 
men  live  without  compensation  on  the  estates  of 
others  ?  Why  so  ?  That  when  I  have  bought, 
built,  keep  the  estate  in  good  order,  spend  money 
upon  it,  you  without  my  consent  may  have  the  use 
of  what  is  mine  ?  What  else  is  this  but  to  take 
from  some  what  is  their  own,  and  to  give  to  others 


Cicero  de  OJictis.  165 

what  is  not  their  own  ?  Then  too,  what  does  the 
cancelling  of  debts  mean,  but  that  you  may  buy  an 
estate  with  my  money,  and  keep  it,  while  I  go  with- 
out the  money  ? 

24,  Therefore  the  care  should  be  to  check  suchi  cU.*.*  \uJ 


excessive  indebtedness  as  will  be  of  injury  to  the  4^ 
state  (which  may  be  prevented  in  many  ways),^;  v<»w  %f^ 
and  not,  if  there  are  debts,  to   deprive   the  richj^  nj^<^ 
of  their  money,  and  to  let  the  debtors  gain  what  1  vuJi^V 
is  not  theirs.     For  nothing  holds  the  state  more  ^  «->*a* 
firmly  together  than  good  faith,  which  cannot  possi-  =^c'^--<-*- 
bly  exist  unless  the  payment  of  debts  is  obligatory.  xLl<  "^ 
Never  was  there  a  more  earnest  endeavor  against  \i\iSL>r^x*r  ^ 
the  payment  of  debts  than  in  my  consulship.     The  A,  i<va>*^%> 
attempt  was  made  by  arms  and  military  operations, 
and   by  men   of  every  kind   and   order,  which  I 
resisted  with  such  energy  that  so  dire  a  calamity 
was  averted  from  the  state.     Never  was   there  a 
larger  amount  of  debt,  nor  was  it  ever  discharged 
more   fully   or   more    easily ;   for   when  the   hope 
of  successful  fraud  was  removed,  the  necessity  of 
paying  was  the  consequence.     He  indeed,  of  late  I 
conqueror,   but  at   that  time    conquered,^   carried 

1  Cicero  would  undoubtedly  have  said,  by  sumptuary  laws, 
which  were  sanctioned  by  the  imperfect  political  economy  of  that 
day. 

2  Cicero  undoubtedly  suspected,  and  with  good  reason,  that] 
Caesar  had   covertly  abetted  the  Catilinian  plot,  and   Caesar's 
speech  in  the  Senate,  if  its  tone  and  spirit  are  fairly  represented 
in  Sallust's  report  of  it,  shows  that  he  was  solicitous  to  save  the 
lives  of  the  conspirators. 


166  Cicero  de  Ojffleiis. 

out  what  he  had  then  planned  after  he  had  ceased 
to  have  any  personal  interest  in  it.^  So  great  was 
his  appetite  for  evil-doing,  that  the  very  doing 
of  evil  gave  him  delight,  even  when  there  was  no 
special  reason  for  it.  From  this  kind  of  generosity, 
then,  —  the  giving  to  some  what  is  taken  from  others, 
—  those  who  mean  to  be  guardians  of  the  state 
will  refrain,  and  will  especially  bestow  their  efforts, 
that  through  the  equity  of  the  laws  and  of  their 
administration  every  man  may  have  his  own  prop- 
erty made  secure,  and  that  neither  the  poorer  may 
be  defrauded  on  account  of  their  lowly  condition, 
nor  any  odium  may  stand  in  the  way  of  the  rich 
in  holding  or  recovering  what  belongs  to  them ; 
while  they  will  also  aid  the  growth  of  the  state  in 
power,  territory,  and  revenue,  by  whatever  means, 
military  or  domestic,  may  be  at  their  command. 
Such  are  the  aims  of  truly  great  men  ;  these  things 
were  wont  to  be  done  in  the  times  of  our  ancestors  ; 
and  those  who  perform  faithfully  duties  of  this 
class  will  with  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  state 
secure  for  themselves  distinguished  favor  and  repu- 
tation, 

^  At  the  time  of  Catiline's  conspiracy  Caesar  was  very  deeply 
in  debt.  He,  in  the  first  year  of  his  dictatorship,  was  the  author 
of  a  law  by  which  debts  were  liquidated  by  payment  of  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  their  amount,  the  pretext  being  the  increased 
value  of  money  occasioned  by  the  expenditure  and  loss  of  treasure 
duiing  the  civil  war.  Caesar  himself  had  by  that  time  become, 
not  only  free  from  debt,  but  absolutely  rich,  in  great  part,  no 
doubt,  from  the  perquisites  of  his  Gallic  campaigns. 


Cicero  de  Officiis,  167 

Among  these  precepts  relating  to  expediency, 
Antipater  of  Tyre,  a  Stoic,  who  recently  died  at 
Athens,  thinks  that  two  subjects  were  omitted  by 
Panaetius, — the  care  of  health  and  that  of  money, 
—  which,  I  suppose,  were  passed  over  by  that  ilhis- 
trious  philosopher,  because  they  presented  no  diffi- 
culty. They  certainly  belong  under  the  head  of 
expediency.  I  would  say,  then,  that  good  health 
is  maintained  by  the  knowledge  of  one's  own  con- 
stitution, by  observing  what  things  are  wont  to  be 
salutary  or  injurious,  by  self-restraint  in  the  whole 
manner  and  habit  of  living,  by  abstaining  from 
sensual  indulgences,  and,  lastly,  by  the  skill  of 
those  to  whose  profession  these  matters  belong. 
Property  ought  to  be  obtained  in  ways  not  dishon- 
orable, to  be  preserved  by  diligence  and  frugality, 
to  be  increased  also  by  the  same  means.  These 
things  Xenophon,  the  disciple  of  Socrates,  has 
thoroughly  discussed  in  his  book  on  Domestic 
Economy,^  which,  when  I  was  about  of  your  pres- 
ent age,  I  translated  into  Latin. 

25.  But  the  comparison  of  things  that  are  expedi- 
ent—  this  being  the  fourth  division,  omitted  by 
Panaetius  —  is  often  necessary.  For  bodily  endow- 
ments are  wont  to  be  compared  with  outward 
advantages,  and  outward  advantages  with  bodily 
endowments,  bodily  endowments  themselves,  too, 
with  one  another,  and  outward  advantages,  some 

1  Oeconomicus  (OIkovo/mkSs),  a  work  wholly  devoted  to  the 
administration  of  the  household  and  private  property. 


168  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

with  others.  Thus  in  comparing  bodily  endow- 
ments with  outward  advantages,  you  would  rather 
be  in  good  health  than  rich  ;  in  comparing  outward 
advantages  with  bodily  endowments,  you  would 
choose  to  be  rich  ratlier  than  to  possess  extraor- 
dinary strength  of  body.  In  comparing  bodily 
endowments  among  themselves,  good  health  would 
be  preferred  to  sensual  gratification,  strength  to 
swiftness  of  foot;  and  of  outward  advantages,  fame 
to  wealth,  city  revenues  ^  to  country  revenues.^ 
Of  this  last  kind  of  comparisons  is  that  quoted 
from  the  elder  Cato,  who,  when  asked  what  was 
the  most  profitable  thing  to  be  done  on  an  estate, 
replied,  "  To  feed  cattle  well."  "  What  second 
best  ? "  "  To  feed  cattle  moderately  well."  "  What 
third  best?"  "To  feed  cattle,  though  but  poorly." 
"  What  fourth  best  ? "  "  To  plough  the  land."  And 
when  he  who  had  made  these  inquiries  asked, 
"  What  is  to  be  said  of  making  profit  by  usury  ? " 
Cato  replied,  "  What  is  to  be  said  of  making  profit 
by  murder  ? "  ^  From  this  and  from  many  things 
beside  it  may  be  inferred  that  comparisons  of  things 

1  From  rents,  and  from  the  wages  of  slaves,  —  this  last  a  very- 
lucrative  and  therefore  a  favorite  source  of  income,  though  not 
deemed  entirely  respectable. 

'  Returns  at  a  lower  percentage  than  city  investments,  and 
more  precarious,  as  contingent  on  the  character  of  the  season  and 
the  abundance  or  scantiness  of  the  crops.  Agriculture,  though 
not  the  most  gainful,  was  regarded  as  the  most  respectable  source 
of  income. 

'  Usury  was  held  in  abhorrence  even  more  than  in  contempt. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  169 

expedient  are  not  infrequently  made,  and  that  this 
is  rightly  added  as  a  fourth  head  to  our  discussion 
of  duty.  But  in  everything  appertaining  to  this  last 
topic,  the  acquisition  and  investment  of  money,  —  I 
could  wish,  as  to  its  use,  too,  —  the  discussions  that 
might  be  held  by  certain  very  good  men  sitting 
among  the  bankers  in  the  Exchange  ^  are  worth  more 
than  those  by  any  philosophers  of  any  school.  Yet 
these  matters  ought  to  be  taken  notice  of ;  for  they 
belong  under  the  head  of  expediency,  —  the  subject 
of  this  book.  Let  us,  in  the  next  place,  pass  on 
to  what  remains  of  the  proposed  plan. 

1  Latin,  ad  Janum  medium.  Janus  was  the  name  of  a  street 
in  or  near  the  forum,  in  which  were  to  be  found  almost  all  the 
brokers'  and  bankers'  offices  in  the  city;  and  Janus  summus, 
medius,  and  imus  meant,  respectively,  the  top,  middle,  and  bottom 
of  Janus  Street. 


170  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis, 


BOOK    III. 

1.  My  son  Marcus,  Cato,  who  was  nearly  of  the 
same  age  ^  with  Publius  Scipio,  the  first  of  the  fam- 
ily that  bore  the  name  of  Africanus,  represents  him 
as  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  he  was  never  less 
at  leisure  than  when  he  was  at  leisure,  or  less  alone 
than  when  he  was  alone,  —  a  truly  magnificent 
utterance  and  worthy  of  a  great  and  wise  man, 
indicating  that  in  leisure  he  was  wont  to  think  of 
business^  and  in  solitude  to  commune  with  him- 
self,^ so  that  he  was  never  idle,  and  had  no  need 
between  while  *  of  another  person's  conversation. 
'Thus  the  two  things,  leisure  and  solitude,  which 
'with  others  occasion  languor,  quickened  his  ener- 
igies.  I  could  wish  that  I  were  able  to  say  the 
jsame;  but  if  I  cannot  by  imitation  attain  such 
transcendent  excellence  of  temperament,  I  at  any 
rate  in  my  inclination  make  as  near  an  approach 
to  it  as  I  can;  for,  debarred  from  political  and 
forensic  employments  by  sacrilegious  arms  and  vio- 

1  About  ten  years  younger. 

^  Latin,  otio  de  negotiis=  nec-otiis. 

'  Latin,  in  soliticdine  secum  loqui  solitum. 

*  Latin,  interdwn,  literally,  betweenwhile. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  171 

lence,  I  am  abandoning  myself  to  leisure,  and 
therefore,  leaving  the  city  and  wandering  from  one 
place  in  the  country  to  another,  I  am  often  alone. 
But  neither  is  this  leisure  of  mine  to  be  compared 
with  the  leisure  of  Africanus,  nor  this  solitude  with 
his.  He,  indeed,  reposing  from  the  most  honorable 
public  trusts,  upon  certain  occasions  snatched  leisure 
for  himself,  and  from  the  company  and  concourse 
of  men  betweenwhile  betook  himself  to  solitude 
as  to  a  harbor.  But  my  leisure  proceeds  from  lack 
of  employment,  not  from  desire  for  repose.  For, 
the  Senate  being  silenced  ^  and  the  courts  sus- 
pended,^  what  is  there  wortliy  of  myself  that  I  can 
do  either  in  the  senate-house  or  in  the  forum  ? 
Thus,  after  having  lived  in  the  greatest  publicity 
and  in  the  presence  of  my  fellow-citizens,  I  now 
hide  myself  to  escape  the  sight  of  bad  men  who 
swarm  everywhere,  and  I  am  often  alone.  Yet 
since  philosophers  say  that  one  ought  not  only 
of  evils  to  choose  the  least,  but  from  even  these 
least  evils  to  extract  whatever  of  good  there  may 
be  in  them,  I  therefore  am  utilizing  my  leisure, 
though  it  be  not  that  to  which  I  was  entitled  after 
having  obtained  leisure  ^  for  the  state,  nor  am   I 

■  1  Antony  had  surrounded  the  Senate  in  its  sessions  with  armed 
followers  of  his,  and  of  course  the  purpose,  as  well  as  the  effect  of 
so  doing,  was  to  repress  freedom  of  utterance. 

2  Brutus  and  Cassius,  both  praetors,  could  not  safely  remain  in 
or  return  to  the  city,  and  as  they  were  legally  at  the  head  of  the 
judiciary,  the  courts  were  suspended. 

*  Latin,  otium.     Repose  would  be  a  better  rendering,  were  it 


172 


Cicero  de  Offidis. 


^i^jt^. 


^^J"^ 


suffering  this  solitude  —  which  necessity,  not  choice, 
imposes  upon  me  —  to  remain  idle.  Africauus,  in- 
deed, as  I  think,  attained  a  higher  merit ;  for  no 
monuments  of  his  genius  were  committed  to  writing, 
there  remains  no  work  of  his  leisure,  no  fruit  of 
his  solitude,  —  whence  it  should  be  inferred  that 
it  was  in  consequence  of  mental  activity  and  the 
investigation  of  those  things  to  which  he  directed 
his  thoughts,  that  he  was  never  at  leisure  or  alone. 
But  I  who  have  not  such  strength  of  mind  that  I 
can  abstract  myself  from  the  weariness  of  solitude 
by  silent  meditation,  am  directing  all  my  study  and 
care  to  this  labor  of  writing,  and  thus  in  the  short 
time  that  has  elapsed  since  the  overthrow  of  the 
state,  I  have  written  more  than  in  many  years  while 
it  stood.^ 

2.  But  while  all  philosophy,  my  Cicero,  is  fertile 
and  fruitful,  nor  is  any  part  of  it  untilled  or  unoc- 
cupied, there  is  no  department  within  its  pale  more 
productive  or  more  prolific  than  that  relating  to  the 
duties  whence  are  derived  rules  for  living  consist- 
ently and  virtuously.  Therefore,  although  I  trust 
that  you  are  diligently  hearing  and  receiving  in- 
struction on  this  subject  from  Cratippus,  the  fore- 
most philosopher  of  the  present  age,  yet  I  think 

not  that  we  should  lose  Cicero's  play  upon  otium,  which  is  broad 
enough  in  its  meaning  to  apply  to  the  repose  of  the  state  from  the 
plots  of  conspirators  no  less  than  to  the  rest  of  a  worker  from  his 
labor. 

1  Almost  all  Cicero's  philosophical  and  rhetorical  works  were 
written  in  the  last  three  or  four  years  of  his  life. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  173 

that  it  will  be  for  your  benefit  that  your  ears  should', 
constantly  ring  with  such  themes,  and,  were  it  pos- 
sible, should  hear  nothing  else.  While  this  should 
be  the  case  with  all  who  mean  to  enter  on  a  virtuous 
life,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  there  is  no  one  for 
whom  it  is  more  fitting  than  for  you,  —  liable  as  you 
are  to  no  small  anticipation  of  imitating  my  dili- 
gence, to  the  confident  expectation  that  you  will 
succeed  me  in  public  trusts,  and  to  some  hope,  per- 
haps, of  rivalling  my  reputation.  You  have,  beside, 
taken  upon  yourself  the  heavy  responsibility  of  both 
Athens  and  Cratippus,  to  which  and  to  whom,  after 
resorting  as  to  a  mart  of  good  culture,  it  would  be 
in  the  last  degree  shameful  for  you  to  return  empty- 
minded,  thus  disgracing  the  reputation  of  both  the 
city  and  the  master.  Look  to  it,  then,  that  you 
accomplish  as  much  as  you  can  aim  after  in  pur- 
pose, and  strive  for  by  labor,  —  if  learning  be  labor 
rather  than  pleasure,  —  nor  suffer  it  so  to  be,  that 
when  I  have  given  you  the  most  liberal  supplies,^  you 
may  appear  to  have  been  false  to  your  own  interest. 
But  enough  of  this ;  for  I  have  written  to  you 
much  and  often  by  way  of  exhortation.  Let  us 
now  return  to  the  remaining  head  of  my  proposed 
division. 

Panaetius,  then,  who  without  doubt  discussed 
the  subject  of  duty  with  the  utmost  precision,  and 
whom  I  have  thus  far  followed  for  the  most  part, 

1  Young  Cicero's  annual  allowance  would  amount  in  our  money 
to  a  little  more  than  four  thousand  dollars. 


174  Cviero  de  Ojfficiis. 

with  an  occasional  correction,  having  laid  down 
three  heads  under  which  men  were  wont  to  reason 
and  deliberate  concerning  duty,  —  one,  the  inquiry 
whether  the  act  under  discussion  is  right  or  wrong, 
the  second,  whether  it  is  expedient  or  inexpedient, 
the  third,  the  mode  of  settling  the  discrepancy  in 
case  what  has  the  appearance  of  right  is  repugnant 
to  what  seems  expedient,  —  treated  of  the  first  two 
heads  in  three  books,  and  said  that  he  would  speak 
of  the  third  head  in  its  turn,  but  failed  to  keep  his 
promise.  I  am  the  more  surprised  at  this,  because 
Posidonius,  his  pupil,  says  that  he  lived  thirty  years 
after  writing  those  first  three  books.  I  am  sur- 
prised, too,  to  find  this  head  but  slightly  touched 
upon  in  certain  essays  of  Posidonius,  especially  as 
he  says  that  there  is  no  subject  of  so  essential  im- 
portance in  all  philosophy.  I  by  no  means  agree 
with  those  who  maintain  that  this  subject  was  not 
overlooked  by  Panaetius,  but  purposely  omitted,  and 
that  it  ought  not  to  have  been  written  upon  at  all, 
inasmuch  as  expediency  can  never  be  in  conflict 
with  the  right.  With  regard  to  this  assertion  one 
thing  admits  of  doubt,  whether  this  third  head  of 
Panaetius  ought  to  have  been  taken  into  considera- 
tion or  entirely  omitted  ;  the  other  thing  admits  of 
no  doubt,  that  it  was  undertaken  by  Panaetius,  but 
left  unwritten ;  for  to  him  who  has  finished  two 
heads  of  a  threefold  division  the  third  of  necessity 
remains.  Besides,  at  the  close  of  his  third  book  he 
promises  to  treat  of  this  division  in  its  turn.    We 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  175 

have  further  the  testimony  of  Posidonius,  a  credible 
witness,  who  also  writes  in  one  of  his  letters  that 
Publius  Eutilius  Rufus,  a  pupil  of  Panaetius,  used 
to  say  that  as  no  painter  could  be  found  who  would 
finish  the  part  of  the  Venus  of  Cos  ^  which  Apelles 
had  left  imperfect  —  the  beauty  of  the  countenance 
putting  it  beyond  hope  that  the  rest  of  the  body 
could  be  finished  so  as  to  bear  comparison  with  it  — 
so  no  one  had  attempted  what  Panaetius  had  left 
incomplete,  on  account  of  the  surpassing  excellence 
of  the  things  that  he  had  completed. 

3.  There  can,  then,  be  no  doubt  about  the  inten- 
tion of  Panaetius  ;  but  whether  he  was  right  or  not 
in  annexing  this  third  head  to  his  discussion  of 
duty  may,  perhaps,  admit  of  doubt.  For  whether 
the  right  is  the  sole  good,  as  the  Stoics  think,  or 
whether,  as  your  Peripatetics  maintain,  the  right  is 
the  supreme  good  in  such  a  sense  that  all  things  else 
placed  in  the  opposite  scale  are  of  insignificant 
moment,  it  is  beyond  question  that  expediency  can 
never  clash  with  the  right.  Thus  we  learn  that 
Socrates  used  to  denounce  as  worthy  of  execration 
those  who  regarded  as  separable  the  expedient  and 

1  The  most  admired  of  all  the  pictures  of  Apelles.  He  com- 
pleted one  picture  of  Venus  Anadyomcne  (or  rising  out  of  the  sea) 
for  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  at  Cos,  which  was  afterward  placed 
by  Augustus  in  the  temple  which  he  built  to  Julius  Caesar.  This 
was  injured,  and  no  one  dared  to  repair  it.  The  painter  com- 
menced another  picture  of  Venus,  for  the  Coans,  intending  to  sur- 
pass the  previous  one,  but  died  before  it  was  completed,  and  it 
remained  unfinished.     It  is  probably  to  this  that  Cicero  refers. 


176  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

the  right,  which  are  conjoined  by  nature.  The  Stoics 
have  agreed  with  him  in  maintaining  that  whatever 
is  right  must  be  expedient,  and  that  nothing  can  be 
expedient  which  is  not  right.  Now  if  Panaetius 
were  the  sort  of  man  to  say  that  virtue  ought  to  be 
cultivated  because  it  is  productive  of  utility,  as 
those  do  who  measure  the  desirableness  of  objects 
by  the  pleasure  or  the  freedom  from  pain  that  they 
may  afford,  he  might  in  that  case  have  said  that 
expediency  is  sometimes  repugnant  to  the  right. 
But  since  he  belongs  to  the  class  of  men  who  regard 
what  is  right  as  alone  good,  and  consider  life  as 
made  neither  better  by  the  acquisition  nor  worse  by 
the  loss  of  those  things  which  with  a  certain  show 
of  expediency  are  in  conflict  with  the  right,  it  does 
not  seem  as  if  he  ought  to  have  introduced  a  discus- 
sion in  which  what  appears  to  be  expedient  should 
be  compared  with  what  is  right.  For  what  the 
Stoics  term  the  supreme  good,  to  live  in  conformity 
with  nature,  means,  as  I  think,  to  be  always  in  har- 
mony with  virtue,  yet  to  make  free  choice  among 
things  in  general  that  are  in  accordance  with  nature, 
only  on  condition  of  their  not  being  repugnant  to 
I  virtue.  Such  being  the  case,  some  think  that  this 
comparison  is  not  properly  brought  forward,  and 
that  no  practical  lessons  ought  to  have  been  given 
under  this  head.  Indeed,  that  which  is  properly 
and  with  literal  truth  called  the  right  is  found  in 
the  wise  alone,  nor  can  it  ever  be  separated  from 
virtue ;  while  in  those  not  possessed  of  perfect  wis- 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  177 

dom,  the  perfect  right  itself  cannot  possibly  be,  but 
only  semblances  of  the  right.  For  all  these  duties 
discussed  in  the  present  treatise  —  contingent/  as 
the  Stoics  call  them  —  are  conmion,  and  are  largely 
practised,  and  many  attain  to  them  by  excellence  of 
natural  disposition  and  by  advancement  in  knowl- 
edge. But  that  duty  which  the  Stoics  term  the 
right  is  perfect  and  absolute,  and,  in  the  phrase  of 
those  same  philosophers,  has  all  the  numbers,^  nor 
can  it  come  into  the  possession  of  any  one  except 
the  wise  man.  But  when  anything  is  done  in  which 
contingent  duties  are  manifest,  it  seems  to  be  abun- 
dantly perfect,  because  people  in  general  do  not 
understand  what  in  it  is  wanting  to  perfection, 
while  so  far  as  they  do  understand,  they  think 
nothing  omitted.  The  like  is  of  ordinary  occurrence 
in  poems,  pictures,  and  many  other  matters,  namely, 

1  Latin,  media,  which,  literally  translated,  conveys  no  mean- 
ing. Contingent  expresses,  perhaps,  as  well  as  any  single  word 
the  Stoic  conception  of  the  ordinary  duties  perfonned  by  persons 
not  philosophei-s.  The  truly  wise  or  ideal  man  (for  the  extreme 
Stoics  denied  that  he  had  ever  existed)  discerned  the  absolute 
right  in  its  very  essence,  by  direct  intuition.  Other  men  per- 
formed duties,  not  because  they  were  intrinsically  right,  but  be- 
cause each  specific  act  of  duty  had  for  them  its  rule  or  law  in 
external  circumstances. 

2  Most  commentators  say  that  the  allusion  here  is  to  the  rhyth- 
mical movements  in  dancing  and  gymnastic  exercises,  in  which  he 
who  was  perfect  was  said  to  have  or  to  keep  all  the  numbers.  It 
seems  to  me  more  probable  that  Cicero  refers  to  the  Pythagorean 
doctrine  of  numbers,  specific  numbers  denoting  perfection  of 
specific  kinds,  and  "all  the  numbers"  designating  absolute  per- 
fection. 

12 


178  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

that  the  unskilled  view  with  delight  and  commen- 
dation things  that  do  not  deserve  praise,  because,  I 
suppose,  there  is  in  them  something  good  of  a  kind 
to  take  the  fancy  of  the  ignorant,  who  are  incapable 
of  determining  what  defect  there  may  be  in  the 
several  objects  thus  placed  before  them ;  while 
after  they  have  been  taught  by  experts,  they  readily 
change  their  opinion. 

4.  These  duties  which  I  am  discussing  in  the 
present  treatise  the  Stoics  call  a  sort  of  second-grade 
duties,  not  belonging  to  the  wise  alone,  but  common 
to  them  with  the  whole  human  race.  Thus  all  in 
whom  there  is  a  virtuous  disposition  are  favorably 
inclined  to  them.  Nor,  indeed,  when  the  two  Decii 
or  the  two  Scipios  are  commemorated  as  brave  men, 
or  when  Fabricius  is  called  just,  is  the  example  of 
fortitude  sought  from  them,  or  of  justice  from  him, 
as  from  men  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term  "  wise ; " 
for  neither  of  them  was  wise  as  we  would  have  the 
word  "  wise  "  understood.  Nor  yet  were  the  men 
who  were  esteemed  and  surnamed  Wise,  Marcus  Cato 
and  Caius  Laelius,  wise  in  this  sense,  nor  yet  those 
famous  seven ;  ^  but  from  their  constant  practice  of 
common  duties  they  bore  to  a  certain  degree  the 
semblance  and  aspect  of  wise   men.^     Therefore, 

1  The  seven  sages  of  Greece,  —  Bias,  Chilo,  Cleobulus,  Pittacus, 
Periander,  Solon,  and  Thales. 

2  There  is  a  striking  analogy  between  the  ideal  man  of  the 
Stoics  whom  man  never  saw,  and  the  Christian  ideal  of  humanity 
but  once  realized  in  human  form,  and  with  reference  to  which  as 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  179 

while  it  is  an  error  to  compare  the  right  properly  so 
called  with  expediency  when  repugnant  to  it,  at  the 
same  time  that  which  is  commonly  called  right,  and 
is  held  sacred  by  those  who  want  to  be  regarded  as 
good  men,  should  never  be  compared  with  external 
goods ;  and  it  is  as  incumbent  on  us  to  defend  and 
preserve  that  right  which  is  on  a  level  with  our 
apprehension,  as  it  is  on  the  wise  to  cherish  the 
right  properly  and  truly  so  called.  Otherwise,  if 
any  progress  toward  virtue  has  been  made,  it  cannot 
be  maintained.  Enough  has  now  been  said  about 
those  who  are  reputed  as  good  men  on  account  of 
the  discharge  of  common  duties.  But  those  who 
measure  everything  by  the  standard  of  gain  and 
personal  convenience,  nor  are  willing  that  these 
goods  should  be  outweighed  by  virtue,  are  accus- 
tomed, in  their  plans  of  life,  to  compare  the  right 
with  what  they  deem  expedient ;  good  men  are  not 
so  accustomed.  I  therefore  think  that  when  Panae- 
tius  said  that  men  are  wont  to  hesitate  in  this  com- 
parison, he  meant  precisely  what  he  said ;  for  he 
said  only  that  they  were  wont,  not  that  they  ought, 
to  hesitate.  And,  indeed,  it  is  in  the  utmost  degree 
base  not  only  to  prize  what  seems  expedient  above 
what  is  right,  but  even  to  compare  them  with  each 
other  and  to  incline  to  doubt  with  regard  to  them. 
What  is  it,  then,  that  is  wont  sometimes  to  occasion 
doubt  and  may  seem  worthy  of  consideration?     I 

incarnate  the  best  Christians  hold  the  same  position  that  was  held 
by  the  warriors,  patriots,  and  sages  here  named  with  reference  to 
the  Stoic  ideaL 


180  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

believe  that  if  doubt  ever  occurs,  it  is  as  to  the 
actual  character  of  that  which  is  under  considera- 
tion; for  it  often  happens,  under  special  circum- 
stances, that  what  is  wont  for  the  most  part  to  be 
accounted  as  wrong  is  found  not  to  be  wrong.  Let 
a  case  which  admits  of  a  wider  application  be  taken 
by  way  of  example.  What  greater  crime  can  there 
be  than  to  kill  not  only  a  man,  but  an  intimate 
friend  ?  Has  one,  then,  involved  himself  in  guilt 
by  killing  a  tyrant,  however  intimate  with  him  ?  ^ 
This  is  not  the  opinion  of  the  Eoman  people,  who 
jof  all  deeds  worthy  of  renown  regard  this  as  the 
most  noble.  Has  expediency,  then,  got  the  advan- 
.tage  over  the  right  ?  Nay,  but  expediency  has  fol- 
lowed in  the  direction  of  the  right. 

Therefore,  that  we  may  be  able  to  discriminate 
without  mistake,  if  at  any  time  what  we  call  expe- 
dient shall  seem  repugnant  to  what  we  conceive  of 
as  right,  there  must  be  established  some  general 
nile,^  which  if  we  recognize  in  the  comparison  of 
things,  we  shall  never  be  false  to  our  duty.  But 
this  rule  shall  be  in  close  accordance  with  the 
method  and  system  of  the  Stoics,  whom  I  am  fol- 
lowing in  this  treatise,  because  though  by  the  early 
Academics  and  by  the  Peripatetics  who  were  for- 
merly identical  with  them  those  things  that  are 
right  are  preferred  to  those  that  seem  expedient, 

1  The  reference  here  is,  obviously,  to  the  friendly  relation  in 
which  Brutus  stood  to  Caesar. 
'  Latin,  formula. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  181 

yet  these  themes  are  discussed  in  a  loftier  tone  by 
those  to  whom  both  whatever  is  right  is  also  expe- 
dient, and  there  is  nothing  expedient  that  is  not 
right,  than  by  those  to  whom  anything  right  can  be 
otherwise  than  expedient,  or  anything  expedient 
otherwise  than  right.  Moreover,  my  sect  of  the 
Academy  gives  me  broad  liberty,  so  that  I  have  a 
right  to  defend  whatever  seems  to  me  probable. 
But  I  return  to  the  general  rule. 

5.  For  a  man  to  take  anything  wrongfully  from 
another,  and  to  increase  his  own  means  of  comfort 
by  his  fellow-man's  discomfort,  is  more  contrary  to 
nature  than  death,  than  poverty,  than  pain,  than 
anything  else  that  can  happen  to  one's  body  or  his 
external  condition.^  In  the  first  place,  it  destroys 
human  intercourse  and  society ;  for  if  we  are  so 
disposed  that  every  one  for  his  own  gain  is  ready  to 
rob  or  outrage  another,  that  fellowship  of  the  human 
race  which  is  in  the  closest  accordance  with  nature 
must  of  necessity  be  broken  in  sunder.  As  if  each 
member  of  the  body  were  so  affected  as  to  suppose 
itself  capable  of  getting  strength  by  appropriating 
the  strength  of  the  adjacent  member,  the  whole  body 
must  needs  be  enfeebled  and  destroyed,  so  if  each 
of  us  seizes  for  himself  the  goods  of  others,  and 

^  This  is  the  general  rule,  or  formula,  referred  to  in  §  4.  It 
embraces  all  forms  of  wrong-doing  from  man  to  man,  and  thus 
extends  to  all  offences  under  the  second  and  third  of  Cicero's  divi- 
sions of  duty,  but  would  not  include  sins  under  the  first  and 
fourth. 


182  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

takes  what  he  can  from  every  one  for  his  own 
emolument,  the  society  and  intercourse  of  men 
must  necessarily  be  subverted.  It  is,  indeed,  per- 
mitted, with  no  repugnancy  of  nature,  that  each 
person  may  prefer  to  acquire  for  himself,  rather 
than  for  another,  whatever  belongs  to  the  means  of 
living ;  this,  however,  nature  does  not  suffer,  —  that 
we  should  increase  our  means,  resources,  wealth,  by 
the  spoils  of  others.  Nor  is  this  so  merely  by  the 
law  of  nature  and  of  nations ;  but  also  by  those 
statutes  of  particular  communities  on  which  the 
body  politic  in  each  state  depends  for  its  safety,  it 
is  in  like  manner  enacted  that  no  one  can  be  per- 
mitted to  injure  another  for  his  own  benefit.  It  is 
to  this  that  the  laws  look,  it  is  this  that  they  mean, 
that  the  union  of  citizens  shall  be  secure ;  and  those 
who  dissever  it  they  restrain  by  death,  exile,  im- 
prisonment, fine.  Moreover,  much  more  is  this  end 
effected  by  the  reason  inherent  in  nature,  which 
is  the  law  of  gods  and  of  men,  which  he  who  wills 
to  obey — and  all  will  obey  it  who  desire  to  live 
according  to  nature  —  will  never  so  act  as  to  seek 
what  belongs  to  another  and  to  appropriate  to  him- 
self what  he  has  taken  from  another.  For  loftiness 
and  largeness  of  soul,  and  therewith  affability,  jus- 
tice, kindness,  are  more  in  accordance  with  nature 
than  pleasure,  than  life,  than  wealth,  to  despise 
which  and  to  count  them  as  naught  when  compared 
with  the  common  good  is  the  token  of  a  great  and 
lofty  mind.     To  take  aught  from  another  for  one's 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  183 

own  benefit  is,  then,  more  opposed  to  nature  than  , 
death,  or  pain,  or  any  other  adverse  experience.  At 
the  same  time,  it  is  more  in  accordance  with  nature 
to  assume  the  greatest  labors  and  discomforts  for 
the  preservation  and  succor  of  all  nations,  were  it 
possible,  imitating  that  Hercules  whom  human  grati- 
tude, commemorative  of  his  services,  exalted  to  a 
seat  among  the  gods,  than  to  live  in  isolation,  not 
only  free  from  all  causes  of  disturbance,  but  even  in 
the  fulness  of  sensual  gratification,  abounding  in 
resources  of  every  kind,  nay,  even  surpassing  all 
others  in  beauty  and  in  strength.  Therefore  every 
man  endowed  with  a  mind  of  superior  excellence 
and  brilliancy  prefers  the  former  to  the  latter  mode 
of  life,  whence  it  may  be  inferred  that  man,  when 
obedient  to  nature,  cannot  injure  man.  Still  fur- 
ther, he  who  maltreats  another  that  he  himself  may 
obtain  some  benefit,  either  is  unaware  that  he  is 
acting  contrary  to  nature,  or  else  thinks  that  poverty, 
pain,  loss  of  children,  of  kindred,  of  friends,  is  to  be 
avoided  rather  than  wrong-doing  to  a  fellow-man. 
If  he  is  unaware  that  he  is  acting  contrary  to  nature 
in  maltreating  men,  how  are  you  to  reason  with  one 
who  takes  away  from  man  all  that  makes  him  man  ? 
But  if  he  thinks  that  wrong-doing  ought  indeed  to 
be  shunned,  but  that  death,  poverty,  or  pain  is  much 
more  to  be  shunned,  he  errs  in  imagining  any  evil 
affecting  the  bodily  condition  or  property  to  be  of 
greater  consequence  than  moral  evil. 

6.  This,  then,  above  all,  ought  to  be  regarded  by 


184  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

every  one  as  an  established  principle,  that  the  inter- 
est of  each  individual  and  that  of  the  entire  body 
of  citizens  are  identical,  which  interest  if  any  one 
appropriate  to  himself  alone,  he  does  it  to  the  sun- 
dering of  all  human  intercourse.  And  further,  if 
nature  prescribes  this,  that  man  shall  desire  the 
promotion  of  man's  good  for  the  very  reason  that 
he  is  man,  it  follows  in  accordance  with  that  same 
nature  that  there  are  interests  common  to  all.  The 
antecedent  is  true ;  therefore  the  consequent  is  true. 
For  this  is  absurd  indeed  which  some  say,  that  they 
would  take  nothing  from  a  parent  or  a  brother  for 
their  own  benefit,  but  that  it  is  quite  another  thing 
with  persons  outside  of  one's  own  family.  These 
men  disclaim  all  mutual  right  and  partnership  with 
their  fellow-citizens  for  the  common  benefit,  —  a 
state  of  feeling  which  dismembers  the  fellowsliip  of 
the  community.  Those,  too,  who  say  that  account 
is  to  be  taken  of  citizens,  but  not  of  foreigners, 
destroy  the  common  sodality  of  the  human  race, 
which  abrogated,  beneficence,  liberality,  kindness, 
justice,  are  removed  from  their  very  foundations. 
And  those  who  remove  them  are  to  be  regarded  as 
impious  toward  the  immortal  gods ;  for  they  over- 
turn the  fellowship  established  among  men  by  the 
gods,  the  closest  bond  of  wliich  fellowship  is  the 
opinion  that  it  is  more  contrary  to  nature  for  man 
to  take  anything  from  man  for  his  own  benefit  than 
to  endure  all  forms  of  discomfort,  whether  external,  or 
bodily,  or  even  mental,  which  leave  room  for  the 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  185 

exercise  of  justice.  For  this  one  virtue  is  mistress 
and  queen  of  all  the  virtues.  One  may  perhaps  say, 
"  Should  not  then  a  wise  man  who  is  perishing  with 
hunger  take  away  food  from  another  man  who  is 
good  for  nothing  ?  "  No,  indeed,  by  no  means  ;  for 
my  life  is  not  of  greater  service  to  me  than  is  such 
a  disposition  of  mind  as  would  preclude  my  injuring 
any  one  for  my  own  benefit.  What  if  a  good  man, 
to  save  himself  from  perishing  with  the  cold,  should 
rob  of  his  clothes  the  cruel  and  savage  tyrant  Phal- 
aris  ?  May  he  do  it  ?  These  matters  are  very  easy 
of  determination.  If,  indeed,  you  were  to  take 
anything  from  a  perfectly  worthless  man  merely  for 
your  own  benefit,  you  would  perform  an  inhuman 
act  and  one  contrary  to  nature.  If,  however,  you 
are  a  person  capable,  by  prolonging  your  life,  of 
rendering  great  service  to  the  state  and  to  human 
society,  and  for  that  reason  you  take  something  from 
another  person,  you  would  not  be  blamewortliy. 
But  except  in  such  a  case,  each  man  must  bear  his 
own  privations  rather  than  take  what  belongs  to 
another.  Sickness,  or  poverty,  or  anything  of  this 
kind  is  not,  indeed,  more  opposed  to  nature  than 
is  the  appropriation  or  coveting  of  what  belongs  to 
another.  But  at  the  same  time  the  dereliction  of  the 
common  good  is  opposed  to  nature,  for  it  is  unjust ; 
and  therefore  the  very  law  of  nature,  which  pre- 
serves and  maintains  the  good  of  man,  undoubtedly 
prescribes  that  the  necessaries  of  life  should  be 
transferred  from  an  inefficient  and  useless  man  to  a 


186  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

wise,  good,  brave  man,  whose  death  would  make  a 
large  deduction  from  the  common  good,  —  provided 
he  effect  the  transfer  in  such  a  way  that  his  self- 
esteem  and  self-love  may  not  furnish  a  pretext  for 
wrong-doing.  In  this  way  he  will  perform  his  duty 
with  reference  to  the  good  of  mankind  and  to  the 
human  fellowship  of  which  I  have  so  often  spoken. 
Now  as  regards  Phalaris  the  decision  is  very  easy ; 
for  we  1  have  no  fellowship  with  tyrants,  but  rather 
the  broadest  dissiliency  from  them,  and  this  whole 
pestiferous  and  impious  class  of  men  ought  to  be 
exterminated  from  human  society.  Indeed,  as  limbs 
are  amputated  when  they  are  bloodless  and  virtu- 
ally lifeless,  and  injure  the  rest  of  the  body,  so  this 
beastly  savageness  and  cruelty  in  human  form  ought 
to  be  cut  off  from  what  may  be  called  the  common 
body  of  humanity.  Of  this  sort  are  all  the  ques- 
tions in  which  duty  is  to  be  determined  from  cir- 
cumstances. 

7.  Panaetius  would,  I  think,  have  followed  up 
topics  of  this  kind,  had  not  some  accident  or  some 
other  occupation  frustrated  his  intention.  Toward 
these  very  inquiries  there  may  be  drawn  from  his 
first  three  books  many  maxims,  from  which  it  can 
be  clearly  seen  what  is  to  be  avoided  on  account 
of  its  immorality,  and  what  is  not  to  be  avoided 
because  not  absolutely  immoral. 

But  since  I  am,  as  it  were,  putting  the  topstone 

1  We,  i.  e.  the  Roman  people.  Cicero  evidently  has  the  death 
of  Caesar  in  his  mind. 


Cicero  de  OJlciis.  187 

on  a  work  incomplete,  yet  almost  finished,  as  mathe- 
maticians are  wont,  instead  of  demonstrating  every- 
thing, to  ask  that  some  things  be  admitted  ^  in  order 
to  explain  more  easily  what  they  want  to  prove,  so 
I  ask  of  you,  my  Cicero,  to  admit,  if  you  can,  that 
nothing  except  what  is  right  is  to  be  sought  for  its 
own  sake.     If,  however,  you  cannot  grant  this  with- 
out hindrance  from  the  teachings  of  Cratippus,  you 
can  certainly  admit   that  what   is  right  is  to  be 
sought  chiefly  for  its  own  sake.     Either  proposition 
is  sufficient  for  my  purpose  ;   and  now  this,  now 
that,  seems  the  more  probable,  while  no  other  propo- 
sition relating  to  this  subject  is  in  any  degree  prob- 
able.    At  the  same  time,  Panaetius  ought  in  the  i 
first  place  to  be  defended  on  this  point ;  inasmuch  ' 
as  he  said,  not  that  expediency  could   ever  be  in 
conflict  with  the  right,  —  for  this  he  could  not  con-  '• 
sistently  say,  —  but  that  things  that  seemed  expe-  ' 
dient  might  be  thus  in  conflict.     Indeed,  he  often  i 
affirms  that  nothing  is  expedient  which  is  not  also  j 
right,  and  nothing  right  which  is  not  also  expedient; 
and  he  maintains  that  no  more  prolific  source  of  evil 
has  ever  found  its  way  into  human  society  than  the 
opinion  of  those  w^ho  have  divorced  the  expedient 
and  the  right.     Therefore,  it  was  not  in  order  that 
on  certain  occasions  we  should  prefer  expediency  to 
the  right,  but  that  we  might  discriminate  without 
mistake  between  appearance  and  reality,  if  at  any 

*  Axioms,  which  in  their  very  nature  do  not  admit  of  proo£ 


188  Cicero  de  Ojfflciis. 

time  there  were  a  seeming  conflict,  that  he  intro- 
duced into  the  plan  of  his  work  a  seeming,  not  an 
actual,  collision  between  the  expedient  and  the  right. 
This  division,  then,  which  he  left  unwritten,  I  pro- 
pose to  fill  out,  relying  on  no  authority,  from  my 
own  resources ;  ^  for  since  the  time  of  Panaetius  there 
has  been  nothing  written  on  this  head  of  a  nature 
to  satisfy  me,  among  the  works  that  have  come  into 
my  hands. 

8.  When  any  specious  appearance  of  expediency 
is  presented,  one  cannot  help  being  impressed  by  it. 
But  if,  when  you  give  it  closer  attention,  you  see 
that  there  is  something  morally  wrong  connected 
with  what  thus  seems  expedient,  in  that  case  you 
are  not  to  sacrifice  expediency,  but  you  are  to  under- 
stand that  where  there  is  moral  wrong  expediency 
cannot  be.  For  if  nothing  is  so  contrary  to  nature 
as  immorality  (inasmuch  as  nature  craves  things 
right,  and  fitting,  and  consistent),  and  nothing  so 
in  unison  with  nature  as  expediency,  then  it  is  cer- 
tain that  expediency  and  immorality  cannot  exist  in 
the  same  thing.^     Still  further,  if  we  were  born  for 

1  Latin,  sed,  ut  dicUur,  Marie  nostra,  literally,  "  But,  as  the  say- 
ing is,  by  my  own  Mars,"  i.  e.  fighting  my  own  battle,  depending 
on  myself  alone. 

2  This  was  undoubtedly  intended  as  a  syllogism,  —  a  favorite 
mode  of  statement  or  argument  among  the  Stoics.  It  wovdd  admit 
of  several  logical  forms,  among  others,  of  the  following  :  — 

Expediency  is  in  harmony  with  nature ; 
Immorality  is  not  in  hannony  with  nature; 
Therefore,  what  is  immoral  is  not  expedient.  —  A  syllogism  in 
Camestres. 


Cicero  de  OJieiis.  189 

virtue,  and  the  right  either  is  alone  worthy  to  be 
sought  (as  Zeno  maintained),  or  is  assuredly  to  be 
regarded  as  immeasurably  outweighing  all  things 
else  (as  is  Aristotle's  doctrine),  then,  of  necessity, 
what  is  right  must  be  either  the  sole  or  the  supreme 
good.  But  what  is  good  is  certainly  expedient. 
Consequently  whatever  is  right  is  expedient.^  It  is 
then  the  misapprehension  of  bad  men  which,  when 
it  lays  hold  on  anything  that  seems  expedient,  con- 
siders it  independently  of  the  question  of  right. 
This  is  the  origin  of  assassinations,  poisonings,  for- 
geries of  wills.  Hence  come  thefts,  embezzlements 
of  public  money,  plunderings  and  pillagings  of  allies 
and  of  citizens.  Hence,  too,  proceed  the  intolerable 
usurpations  of  excessive  wealth,  and,  lastly,  even  in 
free  states,  the  yearning  for  sovereign  authority, 
than  which  nothing  can  be  imagined  more  foul  or 
more  offensive.  Men,  indeed,  in  their  false  appre- 
ciation, see  the  profit  of  the  wrong  they  do;  they 
see  not  the  punishment,  I  do  not  say,  of  the  laws 
which  they  often  evade,  but  of  the  guilt  itself,  of 
which  the  punishment  is  intensely  bitter.  There- 
fore let  no  quarter  be  given  to  this  class  of  doubters, 
utterly  wicked  and  impious,  who  deliberate  whether 
they  shall  pursue  what  they  see  to  be  riglit,  or  shall 
knowingly  defile  themselves  with  guilt ;  for  there  is 

1  Another  syllogism,  in  Barbara:  — 

Whatever  is  good  is  expedient; 

Whatever  is  right  is  good  (either  the  sole  or  the  sapreme  good); 

Therefore,  whatever  is  right  is  expedient. 


190  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

crime  in  the  mere  hesitation,  even  if  they  do  not  go 
so  far  as  the  outward  act.  Therefore  those  things 
in  which  the  very  deliberation  is  criminal  ought  not 
to  be  deliberated  at  all.  Moreover,  the  hope  and 
expectation  of  concealment,  whether  of  the  act  or 
of  the  actor,  ought  to  be  excluded  from  every  delib- 
eration on  the  conduct  to  be  pursued.  If  we  have 
made  even  the  least  proficiency  in  philosophy,  we 
ought  to  be  thoroughly  persuaded  that,  even  though 
we  could  escape  the  view  of  all  gods  and  men,  still 
nothing  ought  to  be  done  by  us  avariciously,  nothing 
j  unjustly,  nothing  lustfully,  nothing  extravagantly. 

9.  For  this  reason  Plato  introduces  the  well- 
known  story  of  Gyges,^  who,  when  the  ground  had 
caved  away  on  account  of  heavy  rains,  passed  down 
into  the  opening,  and  saw,  as  the  story  goes,  a  brazen 
horse  with  doors  in  his  sides.  Opening  these  doors, 
he  saw  a  man  of  unusual  size,  wdth  a  gold  ring  on 
his  finger,  which  drawing  off,  he  put  it  on  his  own 
finger  (he  was  a  shepherd  in  the  king's  service),  and 
then  repaired  to  the  company  of  the  shepherds. 
There,  as  often  as  he  turned  the  part  of  the  ring 
where  the  stone  was  set  to  the  palm  of  his  hand,  he 
became  invisible,  yet  himself  saw  everything ;  and 
was  again  visible  when  he  restored  the  ring  to  its 

1  Herodotus  makes  Gyges,  not  a  shepherd,  but  the  prime  min- 
ister of  Candaules,  King  of  Lydia,  and  writes  that  he  killed  Can- 
daules  and  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  by  the  queen's  connivance 
and  aid.  The  story  of  the  ring  Plato  quotes  as  a  tradition,  and 
makes  the  same  use  of  it  in  the  Second  Book  of  the  Republic  that 
Cicero  makes  of  it  here. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  191 

proper  place.  Then,  availing  himself  of  the  advan- 
tage which  the  ring  gave  him,  he  committed  adul- 
tery with  the  queen,  and  by  her  assistance  killed 
the  king  his  master,  and  removed  by  death  those 
whom  he  thought  in  his  way.  Nor  could  any  one 
see  him  in  connection  with  these  crimes.  By  means 
of  the  ring  he  in  a  short  time  became  king  of  Lydia. 
Now  if  a  wise  man  had  this  ring,  he  would  not 
think  himself  any  more  at  liberty  to  do  wrong  than 
if  he  had  it  not ;  for  it  is  right  things,  not  -hidden 
things,  that  are  sought  by  good  men.  Here,  how- 
ever, certain  philosophers,  by  no  means  ill-disposed, 
yet  somewhat  deficient  in  acuteness,  say  that  this  is 
only  a  fictitious  and  imaginary  story  that  Plato  has 
told,  —  as  though,  forsooth,  he  asserted  that  such  a 
thing  took  place  or  could  have  taken  place.  The 
meaning  of  this  ring  and  of  this  example  is  as  fol- 
lows :  If  no  one  would  ever  know,  if  no  one  would 
ever  suspect,  when  you  performed  some  act  for  the 
sake  of  wealth,  power,  ascendency,  lust,  —  if  it  would 
remain  forever  unknown  to  gods  and  men,  would 
you  do  it  ?  They  say  that  it  is  impossible.  Yet  it 
is  not  utterly  impossible.  But  I  ask,  If  that  were 
possible  which  they  say  is  impossible,  ^v^hat  would 
they  do  ?  They  persist,  awkwardly  indeed  ;  they 
maintain  that  such  a  thing  could  not  be,  and  they 
stand  firm  in  this  assertion;  they  do  not  take  in 
the  meaning  of  the  phrase,  "  If  it  were  possible." 
For  when  we  ask  what  they  would  do  if  they  could 
conceal  what  they  did,  we  do  not  ask  whether  they 


192  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

can  hide  it ;  but  we  put  them,  as  it  were,  on  the 
rack,  that  if  they  answer  that  they  would  do  what 
seemed  expedient  if  assured  of  impunity,  they  may 
confess  themselves  atrociously  guilty ;  and  if  they 
make  the  contrary  answer,  that  they  may  grant  that 
whatever  is  wrong  in  itself  ought  to  be  shunned.  Let 
us  now  return  to  the  subject  under  discussion. 

10.  There  occur  many  cases  of  a  nature  to  per- 
plex the  mind  under  the  aspect  of  expediency, — 
cases  in  which  the  real  question  is  not  whether  the 
right  is  to  be  sacrificed  on  account  of  the  greatness 
of  the  benefit  to  be  gained  (for  that  is  unquestion- 
ably wrong),  but  whether  that  which  seems  expe- 
dient can  be  done  without  guilt.  When  Brutus 
deposed  his  colleague  Collatinus  from  the  consul- 
ship, he  might  seem  to  have  done  this  unjustly  ;  for 
Collatinus  had  been  the  associate  of  Brutus,  and  his 
assistant  in  measures  for  the  expulsion  of  the  royal 
family.  But  when  the  chief  men  of  the  state  had 
come  to  the  determination  that  the  kindred  of 
Superbus,  and  the  name  of  the  Tarquins,  and  the 
remembrance  of  kingly  government  must  be  put  out 
of  the  way,  what  was  expedient — that  is,  care  for  the 
well-being^ of  the  country  —  was  so  entirely  right  that 
it  ought  to  have  satisfied  Collatinus  himself.  Thus 
expediency  became  valid  on  account  of  the  right 
that  was  in  it,  without  which,  indeed,  there  could 
not  have  been  any  expediency.  Not  so,  however, 
in  the  case  of  the  king  who  founded  the  city ;  for  a 
bare  show  of  expediency  struck  his  mind.    When  it 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  193 

seemed  to  him  better  to  reign  alone  than  with  a 
colleafjue,  he  killed  his  brother.  He  set  aside  both 
brotherly  affection  and  humanity,  in  order  to  attain 
what  seemed  expedient,  yet  was  not  so ;  and  then 
offered  in  defence  the  pretext  of  the  wall,  —  a  mere 
show  of  right,  improbable  in  itself,  and  insufficient 
even  if  true.  He  was  therefore  entirely  in  the 
wrong.  AYith  his  leave  I  would  say  it,  whether  he 
be  Quirinus  or  Romulus.^  Nevertheless,  advantages 
that  are  properly  our  own  we  are  not  to  abandon,  or 
to  yield  up  to  others,  if  we  ourselves  need  them  ;  but 
each  one  must  minister  to  his  own  advantage  only 
so  far  as  it  may  be  done  without  wrong  to  others. 
Chrysippus,^  who  has  written  many  sensible  things, 
wisely  says :  "  He  who  is  running  a  race  ought  to 
endeavor  and  strive  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  to 
come  off  victor;  but  it  is  utterly  wrong  for  him 
to  trip  up  his  competitor,  or  to  push  him  aside.  So 
in  life  it  is  not  unfair  for  one  to  seek  for  himself 
what  may  accrue  to  his  benefit ;  but  it  is  not  right 
to  take  it  from  another." 

But  in  the  case  of  friendships  there  is  the  great- 
est perplexity  as  to  duty,  it  being  equally  opposed 
to  duty  to  withhold  what  you  can  rightfully  con- 
cede to  a  friend,  and  to  concede  what  is  not  right. 
Office,  wealth,  pleasure,  other  things  of  that  sort,  are 

1  Whether  he  be  god  or  man.  Romulus  was  deified  and  wor- 
shipped under  the  name  of  Quirinus. 

2  A  Stoic,  and  the  most  logical  interpreter  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  Stoic  school. 

13 


194  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

certainly  never  to  be  preferred  to  friendship.  At 
the  same  time  a  good  mau  will  do  nothing  against 
the  state,  or  in  violation  of  his  oath  or  of  good  faith, 
for  the  sake  of  his  friend,  not  even  if  he  were  a 
judge  in  his  friend's  case.     For 

"  He  drops  the  friend,  when  he  puts  on  the  judge."  ^ 

He  will  yield  so  far  to  friendship  as  to  wish  his 
friend's  case  to  be  worthy  of  succeeding,  and  to 
accommodate  him  as  to  the  time  of  trial  within 
legal  limits.  But  inasmuch  as  he  must  pass  sen- 
tence upon  his  oath,  he  will  bear  it  in  mind  that  he 
has  God  for  a  witness,  that  is,  as  I  think,  his  own 
conscience,  than  which  God  himself  has  given  man 
nothing  more  divine.  In  this  view,  it  is  an  admi- 
rable custom  derived  from  our  ancestors  —  if  we 
would  only  adhere  to  it  —  that  when  a  favor  is 
asked  of  a  judge,  it  is  in  the  words,  "  So  far  as  it 
can  be  done  without  a  breach  of  good  faith."  A 
request  proffered  in  such  terms  applies  to  things 
which,  as  I  just  said,  can  be  granted  by  a  friend  who 
is  acting  as  a  judge.  On  the  other  hand,  were  one 
to  feel  bound  to  do  all  that  friends  might  desire, 
such  connections  ought  to  be  considered  as  not 
friendships,  but  conspiracies.  I  am  speaking  of 
ordinary  friendships;  for  in  the  case  of  wise  and 
perfect  men  there  can  be  nothing  of  the  kind.  It 
is  related  that  Damon  and  Phintias,^  Pythagoreans, 

1  A  verse  from  an  unknown  poet. 

2  Valerius  Maximus  writes  this  name  Pythias. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  195 

were  so  disposed  toward  each  other,  that  when  Diony- 
sius  the  tyrant  had  fixed  for  one  of  them  the  day  of 
execution,  and  he  that  was  condemned  to  death  asked 
for  a  few  days'  respite  to  make  arrangements  for  the 
care  of  his  family,  the  other  became  surety  for  his 
appearance,  to  die  in  his  stead  if  he  did  not  return. 
When  he  returned  on  the  day  appointed,  the  tyrant, 
admiring  their  mutual  good  faith,  begged  them  to 
admit  him  to  their  friendship  as  a  third  person.  In 
fine,  whenever  what  seems  expedient  in  friendship 
comes  into  competition  with  what  is  right,  let  the 
apparent  expediency  be  disregarded ;  let  the  right 
prevail.  Moreover,  when  in  friendship  things  that 
are  not  right  are  demanded,  religion  and  good  faith 
are  to  take  precedence  of  friendship.  Thus  will  the 
choice  of  duty,  which  is  the  subject  of  our  inquiry, 
be  determined. 

11.  But  it  is  in  affairs  of  state  that  wrong  is  the  ; 
most  frequently  committed  under  the  show  of  ex- 
pediency. Our  own  people  were  thus  guilty  with 
reference  to  the  demolition  of  Corinth.  The  Athe- 
nians acted  with  still  greater  severity  in  decreeing 
that  the  men  of  Aegina,^  who  were  able  seamen, 
should  have  their  thumbs  cut  off.  This  seemed  ex- 
pedient ;  for  Aegina  was  too  threatening  on  account 

1  This,  if  authentic,  must  have  taken  place  in  the  fifth  century 
before  the  Christian  era.  It  is  mentioned  in  no  extant  work  of 
any  Greek  historian.  It  is  related  by  Aelian,  who,  indeed,  wrote 
in  Greek,  but  was  an  Italian,  lived  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Ha- 
drian, and  embodied  in  his  work  floating  traditions  with  authentic 
history. 


196 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


of  its  proximity  to  the  Piraeus.  But  nothing  that 
is  cruel  is  expedient ;  for  cruelty  is  in  the  utmost 
degree  hostile  to  human  nature,  which  ought  to  be 
our  guide.  Those  also  are  to  be  blamed  who  pro- 
hibit foreigners  from  living  in  their  cities,  and  expel 
them,  as  Fannius  did  in  the  time  of  our  fathers,  and 
Papius  more  recently.^  It  is  indeed  right  that  one 
who  is  not  a  citizen  should  lack  the  full  privileges 
of  citizenship,  as  is  enacted  by  the  law  passed  under 
the  consulship  of  those  very  wise  men  Crassus  and 
Scaevola ;  but  it  is  clearly  inhumane  to  prohibit 
foreigners  from  living  in  the  city.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  worthy  renown  rests  upon  the  instances  in 
which  the  show  of  public  benefit  is  despised  in 
comparison  with  the  right.  Our  history  is  full 
of  examples  of  this  kind,  while  often  at  other  times, 
especially  in  the  second  Punic  war,  when,  after  the 
disaster  of  Cannae,  the  people  manifested  greater 
spirit  than  ever  in  prosperity.  There  was  no  symp- 
tom of  fear,  no  intimation  of  peace.  Such  is  the 
power  of  the  right,  that  it  eclipses  the  show  of 
expediency.  When  the  Athenians  were  utterly 
unable  to  sustain  the  assault  of  the  Persians,  and 
determined  that,  deserting  the  city  and  leaving  their 
wives  and  children  at  Troezen,  they  would  go  on 
board  of  their  ships  and  defend  the  liberty  of  Greece 
by  their  fleet,  they  stoned  to  death  a  certain  Cyr- 

^  Both  of  these  men,  in  their  respective  tribunates,  procured 
the  passage  of  laws  by  which  foreigners,  temporarily  resident  in 
Bome,  were  compelled  to  leave  the  city. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  197 

silus  "who  pressed  upon  tliem  the  advice  to  stay  in 
the  city  and  receive  Xerxes.  He,  indeed,  seemed 
to  advocate  expediency ;  but  expediency  did  not 
exist,  when  the  right  was  on  the  other  side.  The- 
mistocles,  after  the  victory  in  the  Persian  war,  said  in 
a  popular  assembly  that  he  had  a  plan  conducive  to 
the  public  good,  but  that  it  was  not  desirable  that 
it  should  be  generally  knowm.  He  asked  that  the 
people  should  name  some  one  with  whom  he  might 
confer.  Aristides  was  named.  Themistocles  said  to 
him  that  the  fleet  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  which 
was  drawn  ashore  at  Gytheum,  could  be  burned 
clandestinely,  and  if  that  were  done,  the  power  of 
the  Lacedaemonians  would  be  inevitably  broken. 
Aristides,  having  heard  this,  returned  to  the  assem- 
bly amidst  the  anxious  expectation  of  all,  and  said 
that  the  measure  proposed  by  Themistocles  was  very 
advantageous,  but  utterly  devoid  of  right.  There- 
upon the  Athenians  concluded  that  what  was  not 
right  was  not  expedient,  and  they  repudiated  the 
entire  plan  which  they  had  not  heard,  on  the  author- 
ity of  Aristides.  Better  this  than  our  conduct  in 
holding  pirates  free  from  all  exactions,^  our  allies 
tributary.^ 

1  After  Pompey  had  suppressed  piracy,  the  Cilician  pirates 
whom  he  had  subdued  were  formed  into  a  flourishing  colony,  and 
subsequently  entered  into  friendly  and  helpful  relations  with 
Antony. 

2  The  people  of  Marseilles,  king  Deiotarus,  and,  in  fine,  all  the 
allies  that  had  adhered  to  the  Pompeian  faction,  were  burdened 
with  heavy  tribute  under  Caesar's  government. 


198  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

12.  Let  it  be  settled,  then,  that  what  is  wrong  is 
never  expedient,  not  even  when  you  obtain  by  it 
what  you  think  to  be  of  advantage  to  you.  Nay, 
the  mere  thinking  that  what  is  wrong  is  expedient 
is  in  itself  a  misfortune.  But,  as  I  have  already 
said,  there  often  occur  cases  of  such  a  nature  that 
expediency  seems  in  conflict  with  the  right,  so  that 
it  must  be  ascertained  by  close  examination  whether 
it  is  really  thus  in  conflict,  or  whether  it  can  be 
brought  into  harmony  with  the  right.  Of  this  class 
are  questions  like  the  following :  If,  for  example, 
a  good  man  has  brought  from  Alexandria  to  Ehodes 
a  large  cargo  of  corn,  when  there  is  a  great  scarcity 
and  dearth  at  Rhodes  and  corn  is  at  the  highest 
price,  —  in  case  this  man  knows  that  a  considerable 
number  of  merchants  have  set  sail  from  Alexandria, 
and  on  his  passage  he  has  seen  ships  laden  with 
corn  bound  for  Rhodes,  shall  he  give  this  informa- 
tion to  the  Rhodians,  or  shall  he  keep  silence  and 
sell  his  cargo  for  the  most  that  it  will  bring  ?  "We 
are  imagining  the  case  of  a  wise  and  good  man. 
We  want  to  know  about  the  thought  and  feeling  of 
such  a  man  as  would  not  leave  the  Rhodians  un- 
informed if  he  thinks  it  wrong,  but  who  doubts 
whether  it  is  wrong  or  not.  In  cases  of  this  kind 
Diogenes  of  Babylon,^  an  eminent  Stoic  of  high 

^  Diogenes  was  one  of  the  three  philosophers  sent  on  an  embassy 
from  Athens  to  Rome  (b.  c.  155),  to  deprecate  the  payment  of  a 
heavy  fine  imposed  on  the  Athenians.  Aulus  Gellius  character- 
izes his  eloquence  as  moderate  and  sober  {modesta  et  soibria). 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  199 

authority,  is  wont  to  express  one  opinion,  An- 
tipater^  his  pupil,  a  man  of  superior  acuteness, 
another.  According  to  Antipater,  all  things  ought 
to  be  laid  open,  so  that  the  buyer  may  be  left  in 
ignorance  of  nothing  at  all  that  the  seller  knows. 
According  to  Diogenes,  the  seller  is  bound  to  dis- 
close defects  in  his  goods  so  far  as  the  law  of  the 
land  requires,  to  transact  the  rest  of  the  business 
without  fraud,  and  then,  since  he  is  the  seller,  to 
sell  for  as  much  as  he  can  get.  "  I  have  brought 
my  cargo  ;  I  have  offered  it  for  sale ;  I  am  selling 
my  corn  for  no  more  than  others  ask,  perhaps  even 
for  less  than  they  would  ask,  since  my  arrival  has 
increased  the  supply.  Whom  do  I  wrong?"  On  the 
other  side  comes  the  reasoning  of  Antipater :  "What 
say  you  ?  While  you  ought  to  consult  the  welfare 
of  mankind  and  to  render  service  to  human  society, 
and  by  the  very  condition  of  your  being  have  such 
innate  natural  principles  which  you  are  bound  to 
obey  and  follow,  that  the  common  good  should  be 
your  good,  and  reciprocally  yours  the  common  good, 
will  you  conceal  from  men  what  comfort  and  plenty 
are  nigh  at  hand  for  them  ? "  Diogenes,  perhaps,  will 
reply  as  follows  :  "  It  is  one  thing  to  conceal, 
another  not  to   tell.     Nor  am   I  now  concealing 

*  Little  is  known  of  Antipater,  and  of  his  works  notliing 
remains  ;  but  from  tlie  incidental  notices  of  his  character  and 
opinions,  and  of  the  reverence  in  which  he  and  his  memory  were 
held,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  his  opinions  both  in  ethics 
and  in  theology  were  in  advance  of  his  age.  He  was  the  teacher 
of  Panaetius. 


200  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

anything  from  you,  by  not  telling  you  what  is  the 

nature  of  the  gods,  or  what  is  the  supreme  good,  — 

things  which  it  would  profit  you  much  more  to 

know  than  to  know  the  cheapness  of  wheat.     But 

j  am  I  under  the  necessity  of  telling  you  all  that  it 

I  would  do  you  good  to  hear  ?  "     "  Yes,  indeed,  you 

I  are  under  that  necessity,  if  you  bear  it  in  mind  that 

nature  establishes  a  community  of  interest  among 

men."     "  I  do  bear  this  in  mind.     But  is  this  com- 

;  munity  of  interest  such  that  one  can  have  nothing 

of  his  own  ?     If  it  be  so,  everything  ought,  indeed, 

to  be  given,  not  sold." 

13.  You  see  that  in  this  whole  discussion  it  is 

not  said,  "Although  this  be  wrong,  yet,  because  it 

is  expedient  I  will  do  it ; "  but  that  it  is  expedient 

without  being  morally  wrong,  and,  on  the  other  side, 

that  because  it  is  wrong  it  ought  not  to  be  done.    A 

I  good  man  sells  a  house  on  account  of  some  defects, 

I  of  which  he  himself  is  aware  and  others  ignorant. 

j  Perhaps   it  is  unhealthy,  and  is   supposed   to  be 

j  healthy,  —  it  is  not  generally  known  that   snakes 

;  make  their  appearance  in  all  the  bedrooms,  —  it  is 

i  built  of  bad  materials,  and  is  in  a  ruinous  condition  ; 

but  nobody  knows  this  except  the  owner.     I  ask,  if 

the  seller  should  have  failed  to  tell  these  things  to 

the  buyer,  and  should  thus  have   sold  his  house 

for  a  higher  price  than  he  could  have  reasonably 

expected,  whether  he  would  have  acted  unjustly  or 

unfairly  ?     "  Yes,  he  would,"  says  Antipater ;  "  for 

what  is  meant  by  not  putting  into  the  right  way 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  201 

one  who  has  lost  his  way  (which  at  Athens  exposed 
a  man  to  public  execration),  if  it  does  not  include  ; 
the  case  in  which  a  buyer  is  permitted  to  rush 
blindly  on,  and  through  his  mistake  to  fall  into  a  | 
heavy  loss  by  fraudulent  means  ?  It  is  even  worse  I 
than  not  showing  the  right  way ;  it  is  knowingly  i 
leading  another  into  the  wrong  way."  Diogenes,  on 
the  other  hand,  says  :  "  Did  he  who  did  not  even 
advise  you  to  buy,  force  you  to  buy  ?  He  advertised 
for  sale  what  he  did  not  like  ;  you  bought  what  you 
did  like.  Certainly,  if  those  who  advertise  a  good 
and  well-built  house  are  not  regarded  as  swindlers, 
even  though  it  is  neither  good  nor  properly  built, 
much  less  should  those  be  so  regarded  who  have 
said  nothing  in  praise  of  their  house.  For  in  a  case 
in  which  the  buyer  can  exercise  his  own  judgment, 
what  fraud  can  there  be  on  the  part  of  the  seller  ? 
And  if  all  that  is  said  is  not  to  be  guaranteed,  do 
you  think  that  what  is  not  said  ought  to  be  guaran- 
teed ?  What  could  be  more  foolish  than  for  the 
seller  to  tell  the  defects  of  the  article  that  he  is 
selling  ?  Nay,  what  so  absurd  as  for  an  auctioneer, 
by  the  owner's  direction,  to  proclaim,  '  I  am  selling 
an  unhealthy  house '  ? "  Thus,  then,  in  certain 
doubtful  cases  the  right  is  defended  on  the  one 
side;  on  the  other,  expediency  is  urged  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  not  only  right  to  do  what  seems 
expedient,  but  even  wrong  not  to  do  it.  This  is  the 
discrepancy  which  seems  often  to  exist  between  the 
expedient  and  the  right.    But  I  must  state  my  deci- 


202  '     Cicero  de  Officiis. 

sion  in  these  cases ;  for  I  introduced  them,  not  to 
raise  the  inquiry  concerning  them,  but  to  give  their 
solution.  It  seems  to  me,  then,  that  neither  that 
Ehodian  corn-merchant  nor  this  seller  of  the  house 
ought  to  have  practised  concealment  with  the  buy- 
ers. In  truth,  reticence  with  regard  to  any  matter 
whatever  does  not  constitute  concealment ;  but  con- 
cealment consists  in  willingly  hiding  from  others 
for  your  own  advantage  something  that  you  know. 
Who  does  not  see  what  sort  of  an  act  such  conceal- 
ment is,  and  what  sort  of  a  man  he  must  be  who 
practises  it  ?  Certainly  this  is  not  the  conduct  of 
an  open,  frank,  honest,  good  man,  but  rather  of  a 
wily,  dark,  crafty,  deceitful,  ill-meaning,  cunning 
man,  an  old  rogue,  a  swindler.  Is  it  not  inexpe- 
dient to  become  liable  to  these  so  numerous  and  to 
many  more  bad  names  ?  ^ 

14.  But  if  those  who  keep  silence  deserve  censure, 
what  is  to  be  thought  of  those  who  employ  absolute 
falsehood  ?  Caius  Canius,  a  Roman  knight,  a  man 
not  without  wit  and  of  respectable  literary  culture, 
having  gone  to  Syracuse,  for  rest,  as  he  used  to  say, 
not  for  business,  wanted  to  buy  a  small  estate,  to 
which  he  could  invite  his  friends,  and  where  he 
could  take  his  own  pleasure  without  intruders. 
"When  his  wish  had  become  generally  known,  a  cer- 
tain Pythius,  who  was  doing  a  banker's  business  at 
Syracuse,  told  him  that  he  had  a  country-seat,  not, 

1  Latin,  vUiorum  nomina,  literally,  names  of  vices. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  203 

indeed,  for  sale,  but  which  Canius  was  at  liberty  to 
use  as  his  owu  if  he  wished  to  do  so ;  and  at  the 
same  time  he  invited  the  man  to  supper  at  the 
country-seat  for  the  next  day.  He  having  accepted 
the  invitation,  Pythius,  who,  as  being  a  banker,  was 
popular  among  all  classes,  called  the  fishermen 
together,  asked  them  to  fish  the  next  day  in  front  of 
his  villa,  and  told  them  what  he  wanted  them  to 
do.  Canius  came  to  supper  at  the  right  time;  a 
magnificent  entertainment  was  prepared  by  Pythius  ; 
a  multitude  of  little  boats  were  in  full  sight ;  every 
fisherman  brought  what  he  had  taken  ;  the  fish  were 
laid  down  at  the  feet  of  Pythius.  Then  Canius  says, 
"  Prithee,  what  does  this  mean  ?  So  many  fish  here  ? 
So  many  boats  ? "  And  he  answered,  "  What  won- 
der ?  All  the  fish  for  the  Syracuse  market  are  here ) 
they  come  here  to  be  in  fresh  water.  The  fishermen 
cannot  dispense  with  this  villa."  Canius,  inflamed 
with  longing,  begs  Pythius  to  sell  the  place.  He 
hesitates  at  first.  To  cut  the  story  short,  Canius 
over-persuades  him.  The  greedy  and  rich  man  buys 
the  villa  for  as  high  a  price  as  Pythius  chooses  to 
ask,  and  buys  the  furniture  too.  He  gives  security ; 
he  finishes  the  business.  Canius  the  next  day 
invites  his  friends.  He  comes  early ;  he  sees  not 
a  thole-pin.  He  asks  his  next  neighbor  whether  it 
is  a  fishermen's  holiday,  as  he  sees  none  of  them. 
"  Not  so  far  as  I  know,"  was  the  reply.  "  No  fisher- 
men are  in  the  habit  of  fishiucr  here.  I  therefore 
yesterday  could   not  think  what  had  occurred  to 


204  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

bring  them."  Canius  was  enraged.  But  what  was 
he  to  do  ?  My  colleague  and  friend,  Aquillius/  had 
not  then  published  his  forms  of  legal  procedure  in 
the  case  of  criminal  fraud,  as  to  which  when  he  was 
asked  for  a  definition  of  criminal  fraud,  he  replied, 
"  When  one  thing  is  pretended,  another  done."  This 
is  perfectly  clear,  as  might  be  expected  from  a  man 
skilled  in  defining.  Pythius,  then,  and  all  who  do 
one  thing  while  they  pretend  another,  are  treach- 
erous, wicked,  villanous.  Therefore  nothing  that 
they  do  can  be  expedient,  when  defiled  by  so  many 
vices. 

15.  But  if  the  definition  of  Aquillius  is  correct, 
pretence  and  concealment  should  be  entirely  done 
away  with.  Thus  a  good  man  will  neither  pretend 
nor  conceal  anything  for  the  sake  of  buying  or  sell- 
ing on  better  terms.  Indeed,  this  offence  of  criminal 
fraud  had  been  previously  punished  both  by  the 
laws,  as  in  the  case  of  guardianship,  by  the  Twelve 
Tables,  and  in  the  defrauding  of  minors,  by  the 
Plaetorian  law,^  and  also,  without  express  statute, 

1  Caius  Aquillius  Gallus  was  Cicero's  colleague  in  tlie  praetor- 
ship,  and  as  the  head  of  the  judiciary  introduced  into  his  offi- 
cial edict,  and  thus  into  the  body  of  the  Eoman  law,  important 
improvements  in  the  legal  remedies  against  criminal  fraud  {dolus 
malus) . 

2  This  law  (b.  c.  192)  first  discriminated  between  minors 
(minores)  under  twenty-five  years  and  those  of  age  (majores).  By 
this  law  fraud  on  minors  was  punished  by  a  heavy  fine  and  public 
infamy.  It  provided  also  that  contracts  with  minors  should  be 
voidable,  unless  made  with  the  consent  of  a  guardian  appointed 
by  the  praetor. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  205 

"by  legal  decisions  in  whicli  the  phrase  "As  good 
faith  requires "  is  employed.^  In  other  decisions 
the  following  words  hold  a  prominent  place :  —  in 
the  case  of  arbitration  about  a  wife's  property,  "  The 
better,  the  more  equitable  ; "  ^  in  the  case  of  trust- 
property,  "  Fair  dealing  between  good  men."  ^  What 
then  ?  Can  there  be  any  admixture  of  deceit  in 
"  The  better,  the  more  equitable  ? "  Or  when  "  Fair 
dealing  between  good  men"  is  specified,  can  any- 
thing be  done  craftily  or  fraudulently  ?  But,  as 
Aquillius  says,  criminal  fraud  consists  in  misrep- 
reseutation.  All  falsehood,  then,  must  be  removed 
from  contracts.  The  seller  must  not  employ  a  sham 
purchaser,  nor  the  buyer  one  to  depreciate  the  article 
on  sale  by  too  low  a  bid.  Let  either  party,  if  it 
comes  to  naming  the  price,  say  once  for  all  what 
he  will  give  or  take.  Quintus  Scaevola,  the  soni 
of  Publius,  when  he  asked  to  have  the  price  of  an  I 

1  The  text  is  slightly  ambiguous,  at  least  to  a  modern  trans- 
lator. Some  commentators  render  the  sentence  as  referring  to 
decisions  as  to  contracts  in  which  the  words  ex  fide  bona  are 
used ;  others,  as  referring  to  decisions  in  which  these  words  are 
employed. 

2  Melius  aequius,  prescribing,  as  I  understand,  a  leaning  in 
the  wife's  favor  in  any  questions  about  the  dowry  to  be  restored 
in  case  of  the  wife's  death,  or,  in  that  age  more  frequently,  in  case 
of  her  divorce. 

8  Inter  bonos  bene  agier,  in  the  case  of  property  conveyed  to 
a  trustee  on  condition  of  its  being  restored,  —  a  condition  some- 
times to  be  infeiTed  from  the  circumstances  under  which  the  con- 
veyance was  made  rather  than  from  the  express  terms  of  the 
contract. 


206  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

estate  that  he  was  buying  named  once  for  all,  and 
the  seller  had  complied  with  his  request,  said  that 
he  thought  it  worth  more,  and  added  a  hundred 
thousand  sesterces.^  There  is  no  one  who  would 
say  that  this  was  not  the  act  of  a  good  man ;  but 
men  in  general  would  not  regard  it  as  the  act  of  a 
wise  man,  any  more  than  if  he  had  sold  an  estate 
for  less  than  it  would  bring.  This,  then,  is  the  mis- 
chievous doctrine,  —  regarding  some  men  as  good, 
others  as  wise,  according  to  which  notion  Ennius 
writes  that  the  wise  man  who  cannot  provide  for 
his  own  advantage  is  wise  in  vain.  I  would  readily 
account  this  saying  true,  if  I  were  agreed  with 
Ennius  as  to  what  one's  advantage  is.  I  see,  indeed, 
that  Hecato  of  Rhodes,  a  disciple  of  Panaetius,  says, 
in  the  books  on  Duties  which  he  dedicated  to  Quin- 
tus  Tubero :  "  It  is  a  wise  man's  duty,  while  he 
does  nothing  contrary  to  morals,  laws,  and  customs, 
to  have  regard  to  his  private  fortune.  For  we  desire 
to  be  rich,  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  children, 
kindred,  friends,  and  most  of  all  for  the  state,  — 
considering  that  the  means  and  resources  of  individ- 
ual citizens  are  the  wealth  of  the  state."  The  act 
of  Scaevola  just  named  cannot,  then,  be  in  any  way 
pleasing  to  Hecato.  Nor  is  any  great  praise  or  favor 
to  be  rendered  to  a  man  who  merely  says  that  he 
will  not  do  for  his  own  benefit  what  is  unlawful. 
But  if  pretence  and  concealment  constitute  criminal 

^  Sestertii,  or  one  hundred  sesteriia,  equivalent  to  between  four 
and  five  thousand  dollars  of  our  money. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  207 

fraud,  there  are  very  few  transactions  entirely  free 
from  criminal  fraud;  or  if  he  is  a  good  man  who 
does  good  to  those  to  whom  he  can  and  injures  no 
one,  of  a  certainty  we  shall  not  easily  find  that  good 
man.  We  conclude,  then,  that  it  is  never  expedient 
to  do  wrong,  because  wrong-doing  is  always  dis- 
graceful ;  and  because  to  be  a  good  man  is  always 
right,  it  is  always  expedient. 

16.  As  to  landed  property,  the  law  of  the  state 
enacts  that  defects  known  to  the  seller  must  be 
made  known  in  selling  it ;  and  while  by  the  law  of 
the  Twelve  Tables  it  was  enoutrh  for  such  things  as 
were  guaranteed  to  be  made  good,  and  for  the  seller 
who  made  false  statements  with  regard  to  them  to 
pay  double  damages,  the  jurisconsults  have  deter- 
mined that  the  legal  penalty  applies  also  to  reti- 
cence.^ Their  doctrine  is,  that  whatever  defect  there 
may  be  in  an  estate,  if  the  seller  knows  it,  he  is 
bound  to  make  it  good.  Thus  when  the  augurs 
were  going  to  take  an  augury  on  the  Capitol,^  and 
had  ordered  Tiberius  Claudius  Centumalus,  who  had 
a  house  on  the  Coelian  hill,  to  pull  down  those  parts 
of  it  which  were  so  high  as  to  obstruct  their  view  of 
the  heavens,  Claudius  advertised  the  detached  house, 

1  This  statement  refers  not  to  praetorian  edicts  or  to  judicial 
decisions,  but  to  the  interpretation  of  the  statute  by  men  learned 
in  the  law. 

2  The  augurs  faced  the  east  in  taking  their  observations,  so 
that  a  high  house  on  the  Coelian  hill  might  obstruct  their  view, 
all  the  more  so,  if  one  of  the  augurs  had  any  private  grudge 
against  the  owner  of  the  house. 


208  Cicero  de  OJiciis. 

and  sold  it.  The  purchaser  was  Publius  Calpurnius 
Lanarius.  The  same  notice  was  given  to  him  by 
the  augurs.  So  when  Calpurnius  had  complied  with 
the  order,  and  had  ascertained  that  Claudius  adver- 
tised the  house  for  sale  after  being  notified  of  the 
decree  of  the  augurs,  he  procured  the  appearance  of 
Claudius  before  a  legally  appointed  arbitrator,  suing 
him  for  damages  for  his  breach  of  good  faith.  Mar- 
cus Cato  pronounced  the  decision,  the  father  of  my 
friend  Cato  —  for  as  other  men  are  named  from  their 
fathers,  so  is  the  father  of  that  illustrious  man  to  be 
named  from  his  son  —  he,  I  say,  as  judge,  pronounced 
the  decision :  "  Forasmuch  as  the  seller  knew  of 
that  decree  when  he  sold  the  house,  and  did  not 
make  it  known,  the  damage  ought  to  be  made  good 
to  the  buyer."  He  thus  decided  that  in  good  faith  a 
defect  known  by  the  seller  ought  to  be  known  by 
the  buyer.  If  this  was  a  right  decision,  then  neither 
that  corn-merchant,  nor  the  seller  of  the  unhealthy 
house,  had  a  right  to  keep  silence.  But  all  such 
cases  of  reticence  cannot  be  comprised  in  the  law  of 
the  land,  though  those  which  can  be  so  comprised 
are  carefully  repressed.  Marcus  Marius  Gratidianus, 
my  kinsman,  had  sold  to  Caius  Sergius  Grata  the 
house  which  he  had  bought  from  that  same  Grata  a 
few  years  before.  The  estate  was  subject  to  certain 
rights  of  way,  which  Marius  had  omitted  to  name 
in  the  contract  of  sale.  The  case  was  brought  into 
court.  Crassus  was  advocate  for  Grata,  Antonius 
for  Gratidianus.    Crassus  laid  stress  on  the  law  that 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  209 

any  defect  known  by  the  seller  and  not  mentioned 
ought  to  be  made  good.  Antoiiius  rested  his  plea 
on  the  equity  of  the  case,  that  inasmuch  as  the 
defect  was  not  unknown  to  Sergius,  who  had  pre- 
viously sold  the  house,  there  was  no  need  of  its 
being  specified,  nor  had  the  purchaser  been  imposed 
upon,  since  he  knew  perfectly  well  to  what  the 
estate  purchased  was  liable.  To  what  purpose  do  I 
name  these  things  ?  That  you  may  understand  that 
our  ancestors  did  not  approve  of  chicanery.^ 

17.  But  the  laws  remove  chicanery  in  one  way, 
philosophers  in  another,  —  the  laws,  so  far  as  they 
can  lay  hold  on  overt  acts  ;  philosophers,  so  far  as 
they  can  reach  such  cases  by  reason  and  under- 
standing. Eeason,  then,  demands  that  nothing  be 
done  ensnaringly,  nothing  under  false  pretence, 
nothing  deceitfully.  Yet  is  it  not  ensnaring  to 
spread  nets,  even  if  you  do  not  start  and  hunt  your 
victims  ?  For  beasts  themselves  often  fall  into  nets 
without  being  pursued.  Is  it  not  thus  that  you 
advertise  a  house,  —  put  up  a  notice  of  sale  as  a  net ; 
sell  the  house  on  account  of  its  defects ;  and  some 
unwary  person  runs  into  the  net  ?  Yet  such  is  the 
degenerate  state  of  feeling,  that  I  find  this  neither 
accounted  as  morally  wrong,  nor  yet  forbidden  by 
statute  or  by  the  civil  law,  though  it  is  forbidden 
by  the  law  of  nature.    For  there  is  —  though  I  have 

*  Cicero  here  means  to  say:  "  Cases  of  this  kind  are  compara- 
tively recent.     The  records  of  the  earlier  and  better  times  contain 
no  such  instances  of  chicanery." 
14 


210 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 


often  said  it,  there  is  need  of  its  being  said  still 
oftener  —  a  fellowship  of  men  with  men,  which  has, 
indeed,  the  broadest  possible  extent;  a  more  inti- 
mate union,  of  those  who  belong  to  the  same  race ; 
one  closer  still,  of  those  who  belong  to  the  same 
state.  Therefore  our  ancestors  recognized  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  law  of  nations  and  the  law  of  the 
state.  What  is  the  law  of  the  state  is  not  necessa- 
rily also  the  law  of  nations  ;  but  whatever  is  the  law 
of  nations  ought  also  to  be  the  law  of  the  state. 
But  of  true  law  and  genuine  justice  we  have  no  real 
and  lifelike  representation  ;  their  shadow  and  sem- 
blances alone  are  ours.  Yet  would  that  we  might 
follow  even  these  !  For  they  are  drawn  from  excel- 
lent models  presented  by  nature  and  truth.  How 
precious  are  these  words :  "That  I  be  not  taken  in 
and  defrauded  through  you  or  on  account  of  my 
confidence  in  you ! "  What  a  golden  formula  is 
this:  "As  ought  to  be  done  between  good  men, 
fairly  and  without  fraud  ! "  ^  But  the  great  question 
is,  Who  are  the  "  good  men,"  and  what  is  it  to  be 
"  fairly  done  "  ?  Quintus  Scaevola,  the  head  of  the 
pontifical  college,  said  that  there  was  the  greatest 
force  in  all  decisions  to  which  the  phrase  "in  good 
faith "  was  annexed,  and  he  thought  that  as  the 
terra  "  good  faith "  had  the  broadest  application  as 
employed  in  guardianships,  partnerships,  trusts, 
commissions,  purchases,  sales,  hiring,  leases,  which 


1  These  were  forms  used  in  deeds  of  trust. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  211 

make  up  the  whole  system  of  social  transactions,  it 
required  a  judge  of  superior  capacity  to  determine 
—  especially  as  there  are  often  cross-suits  —  what 
each  party  is  bound  to  render,  and  to  whom,  in  the 
satisfaction  of  just  claims. 

There  should,  then,  be  an  end  of  chicanery  and 
of  that  cunning  which  means  indeed  to  pass  for 
prudence,  but  is  an  entirely  different  thing  and  at 
the  widest  distance  from  it;  for  prudence  has  its 
proper  place  in  the  choice  between  good  and  evil, 
while  cunning — if  whatever  is  immoral  is  evil  — 
prefers  evil  things  to  good. 

Nor  is  it  only  with  reference  to  landed  estate  that 
the  civil  law,  derived  from  nature,  punishes  cunning 
and  fraud ;  but  in  the  sale  of  slaves  also  all  fraud  on 
the  part  of  the  seller  is  proliibited.  By  the  edict  of 
the  aediles,^  the  seller  who  may  rightly  be  supposed 
to  know  about  the  health,  the  truant  habits,  the 
dishonesty  of  the  slave,  is  bound  to  guarantee  the 
purchaser  against  damage.  The  case  of  persons  who 
sell  slaves  that  have  recently  come  to  them  by 
inheritance  is  different.^  From  these  instances  it  is 
clear,  since  nature  is  the  fountain  of  law,  that  it  is 
in  accordance  with  nature  that  no  one  should  act 
so  as  to  prey  upon  another's  ignorance.  Nor  can 
there  be  found  any  greater  source  of  mischief  to 

1  The  regulation  of  the  markets  was  among  the  functions  of 
the  aediles. 

2  One  who  had  just  come  into  an  inheritance  of  human  chattels  " 
could  not  be  expected  to  know  their  characters  and  habits. 


212  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

human  society  than  the  false  show  of  intelligence  in 
the  practice  of  cunning.  Hence  spring  those  count- 
less cases  in  which  expediency  seems  to  be  in  con- 
flict with  the  right.  For  how  few  will  be  found 
who,  if  impunity  and  absolute  secrecy  were  offered, 
could  refrain  from  wrong-doing  ! 

18.  Let  us,  if  you  please,  try  the  principle  that  I 
have  laid  down,  with  reference  to  cases  in  which  the 
generality  of  mankind  do  not  think  that  any  wrong 
is  committed.  For  I  am  not  going  to  speak  here  of 
assassins,  poisoners,  forgers  of  wills,  thieves,  pecu- 
lators, who  are  to  be  repressed,  not  by  words  and 
philosophical  discussion,  but  by  chains  and  impris- 
onment. Let  us  consider  the  things  that  are  done 
by  those  who  are  accounted  as  good  men.  Certain 
persons  brought  from  Greece  to  Eome  a  forged  will 
of  Lucius  Minucius  Basilus,  a  rich  man.  That  they 
might  more  easily  maintain  its  validity,  they  made 
joint-heirs  with  themselves  Marcus  Crassus  and 
Quintus  Hortensius,  the  most  influential  men  of 
that  time,  who,  while  they  suspected  the  forgery, 
yet  being  conscious  of  no  guilt  of  their  own  in  the 
case,  did  not  spurn  the  paltry  present  that  came  to 
them  through  the  crime  of  others.  What  then  ?  Is 
their  freedom  from  the  positive  offence  of  forgery 
sufficient  for  their  acquittal  ?  I  think  not,  though 
I  loved  one  of  them  while  he  lived,^  and  am  not  an 

1  Hortensius.  As  rival  orators,  Cicero  and  Hortensius  might 
have  been  on  other  than  friendly  terms,  had  they  not  both  been 
intimate  friends  of  Atticus. 


Cicero  de  Ojfflciis.  213 

enemy  of  the  other  now  that  he  is  dead.^  But  when 
Basilus  meant  that  his  sister's  son,  Marcus  Satrius, 
should  take  his  name,  and  had  made  him  his  heir,  — 
I  mean  this  patron  of  the  Picene  and  Sabine  terri- 
tory, to  the  disgrace  of  our  time,^ — was  it  right 
that  those  distinguished  citizens  should  have  the 
property,  and  that  nothing  save  the  name  should 
descend  to  Satrius  ?  Forsooth,  if  he  who  does  not, 
when  he  can,  ward  off  or  repel  wrong  is  guilty  of 
injustice  (as  I  showed  in  the  First  Book),  what  is  to 
be  thought  of  him  who,  so  far  from  repelling,  abets 
the  wrong  ?  To  me,  indeed,  genuine  inheritances 
do  not  seem  right,  if  sought  by  knavish  blandish- 
ments,—  by  attentions  rendered  not  from  sincere 
but  simulated  kindness.^  In  such  affairs,  one  thing 
sometimes  appears  expedient,  another  right.  But  it 
is  a  deceptive  appearance ;  for  the  standard  of  expe- 
diency is  the  same  as  that  of  right.     He  who  does 

1  Cicero  charged  Crassus  with  complicity  in  Catiline's  conspi- 
racy, and  Crassus  was  a  friend  of  Clodius,  Cicero's  bitterest  enemy. 
After  Cicero's  return  from  exile,  Crassus  sought  a  formal  recon- 
ciliation with  Cicero,  and  there  was  no  subsequent  manifestation 
of  hostility  on  liis  part. 

2  It  was  shameful,  as  Cicero  could  not  but  think,  that  states 
whose  citizens  nominally  enjoyed  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship 
should  need  official  patrons,  and  equally  so,  in  his  esteem,  that 
those  patrons  should  be,  like  Satrius,  selected  from  among  An- 
tony's adherents  and  satellites. 

^  It  is  a  singular  feature  of  Roman  society  in  and  after  Cicero's 
time  that  the  legacy-hunters  {hcrcdipetue)  should  have  been 
numerous  enough  and  should  have  found  dupes  enough  to  form 
a  distinct  class,  and  almost  a  recognized  profession. 


214  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

not  clearly  see  this  is  capable  of  any  kind  of  fraud, 
of  any  crime.  For  he  who  thinks,  "  That  is  indeed 
right,  but  this  is  expedient,"  will  dare  in  his  igno- 
rance to  divorce  things  united  by  nature,  —  a  state 
of  feeling  which  is  the  source  of  aU  frauds,  wrongs, 
crimes. 

19.  Therefore,  if  a  good  man  could  by  snapping 
his  fingers  make  his  name  creep  surreptitiously  into 
rich  men's  wills,  he  would  not  use  this  power,  no, 
not  even  though  he  were  absolutely  certain  that  no 
one  would  ever  have  the  least  suspicion  of  it.  But 
had  you  given  this  power  to  Marcus  Crassus,  that 
by  snapping  his  fingers  he  could  get  his  name  in- 
serted in  a  will  though  he  were  not  really  the  heir, 
I  warrant  you  he  would  have  danced  in  the  forum. 
A  just  man,  however,  and  one  whom  we  feel  to  be 
a  good  man,  will  take  nothing  from  any  one  to 
transfer  it  to  himself.  Let  him  who  marvels  at  this 
confess  that  he  knows  not  what  a  good  man  is. 
But  if  one  would  only  develop  the  idea  of  a  good 
man  wrapped  up  in  his  own  mind,  he  would  then  at 
once  tell  himself  that  he  is  a  good  man  who  benefits 
all  that  he  can,  and  does  harm  to  no  one  unless  pro- 
voked by  injury.^  What  then  ?  Must  not  he  do 
harm,  who,  as  if  by  enchantment,  displaces  the  true 
heirs,  to  put  himself  in  their  stead  ?  "  Is  he  not, 
then,"  some  one  may  say,  "  to  do  what  is  service- 
able, what  is  expedient  ? "  Yes,  but  let  him  under- 
stand that  nothing  unjust  can  be  either  expedient 

1  See  Book  I.  §  7. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  215 

or  serviceable.  He  who  has  not  learned  this  cannot 
be  a  good  man.  In  my  boyhood  I  heard  from  my 
father  that  Fimbria,  who  had  been  consul,  was 
appointed  judge  in  the  case  of  Marcus  Lutatius 
Pinthias,  a  Roman  knight,  not  otherwise  than  re- 
spectable, who  had  laid  a  wager,  to  be  forfeited  if  he 
did  not  prove  liimself  to  be  a  good  man.  Fimbria 
said  that  he  would  never  act  as  judge  in  the  case, 
lest,  if  he  decided  against  Pinthias,  he  might  de- 
prive a  worthy  man  of  his  reputation,  or  if  he 
decided  in  his  favor,  he  might  seem  to  have  pro- 
nounced some  ordinary  person  to  be  a  good  man, 
while  such  a  character  was  made  up  of  innumerable 
duties  and  merits.  To  a  good  man,  then,  even  in 
the  conception  of  Fimbria,  not  to  say  of  Socrates,^ 
nothing  can  by  any  possibility  seem  expedient  that 
is  not  right.  Therefore  such  a  man  will  not  dare, 
not  only  to  do,  but  even  to  think  any  tiling  which  he 
may  not  venture  to  proclaim  publicly.  Is  it  not 
shameful  that  philosophers  should  be  in  doubt  about 
these  matters  as  to  which  even  peasants  have  no 
doubt  ?  From  the  peasants  sprang  the  old  saying 
that  has  become  proverbial.  When  they  commend 
any  one's  honesty  and  goodness,  they  say  that  you 
might  trust  him  to  play  odd  and  even  ^  with  you  in 

•  Of  a  man  of  the  world,  not  of  a  philosopher. 

2  Latin,  mices.  Micare,  or  micare  digitis  (to  flash  with  the 
fingers),  denotes  the  game  of  mora,  which  is  still  a  favorite  recrea- 
tion, or  rather  mode  of  gambling,  with  the  Roman  populace,  and 
may  be  often  seen  in  the  streets.  Stor)',  in  his  Roba  di  Rama, 
describes  it  as  follows:   "Two  persons  place  themselves  opposite 


216  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

the  dark.  What  does  this  mean,  unless  that  what 
is  unbecoming  is  not  expedient,  even  if  you  could 
obtain  it  without  any  one  being  able  to  prove  it 
against  you  ?  Do  you  not  see  that  according  to 
this  proverb  there  could  be  no  apology  either  for 
that  Gyges  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  or  for  this  man 
whom  I  just  now  supposed  by  way  of  illustration, 
who  by  snapping  his  fingers  could  convert  the 
inheritances  of  a  whole  community  to  his  own  use  ? 
For  as  what  is  immoral,  though  concealed,  cannot 
be  in  any  way  made  right,  so  it  cannot  be  brought 
about  that,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  and  repug- 
nancy of  nature,  what  is  not  right  should  in  any 
case  be  expedient. 

20.  Yet  it  may  be  said  that  when  the  gain  is  very 
great,  there  is  justifying  cause  for  wrong-doing. 
When  Caius  Marius  had  no  near  prospect  of  the 
consulship,  and  still  remained  in  obscurity  the 
seventh  year  after  he  had  been  praetor,  nor  gave 
any  token  that  he  was  ever  going  to  offer  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  the  consulship,  having  been  sent 
to  Rome  by  his  commander  Quintus  Metellus,  a 
man  and  citizen  of  the  highest  eminence,  whose 

each  other,  holding  their  right  hands  closed  before  them.  They 
then  simultaneously  and  with  a  sudden  gesture  throw  out  their 
hands,  some  of  the  fingers  being  extended,  and  others  shut  up  on 
the  palm,  —  each  calling  out  in  a  loud  voice,  at  the  same  moment, 
the  number  he  guesses  the  fingers  extended  by  himself  and  his 
adversary  to  make.  If  neither  cry  out  aright,  or  if  both  cry  out 
aright,  nothing  is  gained  or  lost ;  but  if  only  one  guess  the  true 
number,  he  wins  a  point." 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  217 

lieutenant  he  was,  he  charged  Metellus  before  the 
Eoman  people  with  needlessly  protracting  the  war, 
intimating  that  if  they  had  made  him  consul,  he 
would  in  a  short  time  have  given  Jugurtha  either 
living  or  dead  into  the  power  of  the  Eoman  people. 
And  so  he  was  indeed  made  consul ;  but  in  bring- 
ing into  odium  by  a  false  accusation  a  citizen  of  the 
highest  worth  and  eminence,  whose  lieutenant  he 
was  ^  and  by  whom  he  had  been  sent  home,  he 
made  a  wide  departure  from  good  faith  and  honesty. 
My  kinsman  Gratidianus  ^  did  not  play  the  part  of 
a  good  man  on  the  occasion  when  he  was  praetor, 
and  the  tribunes  of  the  people  had  called  into 
counsel  the  college  of  praetors,  that  the  currency 
might  have  its  standard  fixed  by  a  joint  resolution ; 
for  the  value  of  money  was  then  so  fluctuating  that 
no  one  could  know  how  much  or  how  little  property 
he  had.  The  tribunes  and  praetors  jointly  framed  a 
decree,  specifying  the  penalty  and  the  judicial  pro- 
ceedings for  its  violation,  and  agreed  to  mount  the 
rostrum  together  in  the  afternoon.  The  others  went 
their  several  ways  ;  while  Marius  from  the  seats  of 
the  tribunes  directly  mounted  the  rostrum,  and 
alone  announced  the  decree  which  had  resulted 
from  their  combined  action.    This  affair,  if  you  want 

1  The  relation  of  a  legatus,  or  lieutenant,  to  his  commander 
was,  in  Eoman  ethics,  not  unlike  that  of  a  son  to  his  father,  so 
tha,t  Marius  in  his  conduct  toward  Metellus  might  have  been  pro- 
nounced impius. 

'  Marcus  Marius  Gratidianus,  son  of  an  adopted  son  of  the 
brother  of  Caius  Marius. 


218  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

to  know,  brought  him  great  popularity.  Statues 
were  erected  iu  his  honor  in  all  the  streets  ;  incense 
and  wax  tapers  were  burned  before  them.  To  cut 
the  story  short,  no  man  was  ever  more  cherished  by 
the  multitude.  These  are  the  cases  which  some- 
times perplex  one  in  the  discussion,  —  cases  where 
the  matter  in  which  honesty  is  transgressed  is  not 
so  very  great,  while  that  which  is  obtained  1iy  means 
of  it  is  of  the  very  highest  value ;  as,  for  Marius,  it 
was  not  so  irredeemably  shameful  to  forestall  the 
popular  favor  from  his  colleagues  and  the  tribunes 
of  the  people,  while  by  this  means  to  become  consul, 
the  end  which  he  then  had  in  view,^  seemed  in  the 
highest  degree  desirable.  But  there  is  one  rule  for 
all  cases,  which  I  would  have  profoundly  impressed 
on  your  mind,  —  either  that  what  seems  expedient 
must  not  be  wrong,  or  if  it  be  wrong,  that  it  must 
not  seem  to  be  expedient.  Can  we  deem  either  that 
Marius  or  this  a  good  man  ?  Unfold  and  examine  ^ 
your  own  consciousness,  that  you  may  see  what  within 
it  is  the  aspect,  shape,  and  conception  of  a  good  man. 
Does  it  fall  in  with  the  character  of  a  good  man 
to  lie,  to  slander,  to  forestall,  to  deceive  ?  Nothing 
certainly  can  be  less  in  harmony  with  it.  Is  there, 
then,  any  object  of  so  much  value,  or  any  advantage 
so  worthy  of  your  quest,  that  you  should  forfeit  for 

1  He  never  obtained  the  consulship  ;  but  the  very  popularity 
won  by  his  agency  in  settling  the  fluctuating  cuiTency  was-  in 
Sulla's  eyes  a  crime  which  made  him  one  of  the  dictator's  earliest 
victims. 

2  Latin,  explica  atque  exciUe,  literally,  unfold  and  shake  out. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  219 

it  the  glory  and  reputation  of  a  good  man  ?  What 
is  there  that  so-called  expediency  can  bring  to  you 
of  equal  worth  with  what  it  takes  from  you,  if  it 
robs  you  of  the  reputation  of  a  good  man,  and 
deprives  you  of  truth  and  honesty  ?  For  what  dif- 
ference does  it  make,  whether  one  turns  himself 
from  a  man  into  a  beast,  or  in  the  form  of  a  man 
carries  the  moral  obduracy  of  a  beast  ? 

21.  What  ?  Do  not  those  who  violate  all  that  is 
right  and  virtuous  if  they  can  only  obtain  power,  do 
the  same  thing  with  him  who  chose  to  have  even 
for  a  father-in-law  the  man  by  whose  audacity  he 
himself  might  become  powerful  ?^  It  seemed  expe- 
dient to  him  to  avail  himself  of  the  other's  unpopu- 
larity for  his  own  great  advancement.  He  did  not 
perceive  how  unjust  this  was  to  the  country,  how 
base,  and  how  harmful.  The  father-in-law  himself 
had  always  on  his  lips  the  Greek  verses  from  the 
Phoenissae,  which  I  will  render  as  I  can,  awkwardly 
it  may  be,  but  still  so  as  to  be  intelligible  :  — 

"  Transcend  the  right  in  quest  of  power  alone"; 
In  all  things  else  hold  fast  the  bond  of  kindred." 

It  was  criminal  in  Eteocles,^  or  rather  in  Euripi- 
des, to  except  that  one  thing  which  was  the  most 

1  Pompey  married  Caesar's  daughter,  and  hoped  to  gain  ascend- 
ency by  throwing  upon  Caesar  the  unpopularity  of  whatever  was 
offensive  in  the  measures  of  the  triumvirate. 

2  "Words  put  into  the  mouth  of  Eteocles  when,  having  agreed 
to  hold  the  sovereignty  of  Thebes  with  his  brother  on  alternate 
years,  he  refused  to  resign  the  throne  at  the  end  of  the  first  year. 


220  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

wicked  of  all.  Why,  then,  do  we  gather  up  crimes 
on  a  small  scale,  fraudulent  heirships,  bargains, 
sales  ?  Here  you  have  a  man  who  desired  to  be 
king  of  the  Eoman  people,  and  who  accomplished 
his  purpose.  Whoever  says  that  this  desire  was 
right,  is  mad ;  for  he  approves  of  the  destruction  of 
laws  and  of  liberty,  and  deems  their  foul  and  detest- 
able suppression  glorious.  But  as  for  him  who 
acknowledges  that  it  is  not  right  to  usurp  sovereign 
power  in  a  state  which  was  and  which  ought  to  be 
free,  yet  that  it  is  expedient  for  him  who  can  do  so, 
by  what  remonstrance,  or  rather  by  what  reproach, 
can  I  strive  to  draw  him  back  from  so  grave  an 
error  ?  For  (ye  immortal  gods  !)  can  the  basest  and 
foulest  parricide^  committed  upon  his  country  be 
expedient  for  any  man,  even  though  he  who  has 
made  himself  thus  guilty  be  called  parent  by  the 
citizens  whom  he  has  brought  under  the  yoke  ? 
Expediency,  then,  ought  to  be  measured  by  the 
right,  and  so  indeed,  that  the  two,  though  expressed 
by  different  names,  may  have  to  the  ear  the  same 
sound.  I  do  not  accord  with  the  opinion  of  the 
multitude  who  ask  what  can  be  more  expedient 
than  the  possession  of  sovereign  power;  on  the 
other  hand,  I  find  nothing  more  inexpedient  for  him 
who  has  obtained  this  power  unjustly,  when  I  begin 
to  recall  reason  to  things  as  they  really  are.     For 

^  The  tenn  parricide  (parriddium)  was  always  employed  with 
reference  to  heinous  crimes  against  the  country  (patria)  as  well  as 
to  the  murder  of  a  father. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  221 

can  anxieties,  solicitudes,  terrors  by  day  and  by 
night,  a  life  crowded  full  of  snares  and  of  perils,  be 
expedient  for  any  one  ?     Attius  says, 

"  The  throne  has  many  faithless,  loyal  few." 

But  of  what  throne  does  he  say  this  ?  Of  one 
that  was  held  by  right,  transmitted  from  Tantalus 
and  Pelops.  How  much  more,  think  you,  must 
those  words  apply  to  that  king  who  by  the  army  of 
the  Roman  people  subdued  that  very  Eoman  people, 
and  forced  to  servile  obedience  a  state  not  only  free, 
but  ruling  over  whole  races  of  men  ?  What  mis- 
givings of  conscience  must  he  have  had  on  his  mind, 
think  you  ?  What  inward  wounds  ?  Whose  life 
can  be  serviceable  to  himself  if  he  holds  it  on  con- 
dition that  whoever  deprives  him  of  it  will  rise  to 
the  summit  of  favor  and  glory  ?  But  if  these  things 
which  seem  in  the  highest  degree  expedient  are  yet 
inexpedient  because  full  of  disgrace  and  wicked- 
ness, we  ought  to  be  thoroughly  convinced  that 
there  is  nothing  expedient  that  is  not  right. 

22.  This,  while  often  indeed  at  other  times,  was 
expressly  decreed  by  Gains  Fabricius  in  his  second 
consulate  and  by  our  Senate,  in  the  war  with 
Pyrrhus.  For  Pyrrhus  having  made  war  with  the 
Eoman  people  without  provocation,  and  there  being 
a  contest  for  supremacy  with  that  high-minded  and 
powerful  king,  a  deserter  came  from  him  to  the 
camp  of  Fabricius,  and  promised  that,  if  he  would 
give  him  his  price,  as  he  had  come  secretly,  so  he 


222 


Cicero  de  OJiciis. 


would  return  secretly  to  the  camp  of  Pyrrhus,  and 
kill  him  by  poison.  Fabricius  sent  the  man  back 
to  Pyrrhus,  and  that  act  of  his  was  commended  by 
the  Senate.  Yet  if  we  look  to  the  appearance  and 
the  popular  opinion  of  expediency,  a  single  deserter 
would  have  put  an  end  to  that  great  war  and  to  a 
dangerous  enemy  of  the  empire.  But  it  would  have 
been  a  great  disgrace  and  scandal  for  one  with  whom 
the  contest  was  for  glory  to  have  been  overcome  by 
crime,  not  by  valor.  Which,  then,  was  the  more 
expedient,  for  Fabricius,  who  was  in  this  city  what 
Aristides  was  in  Athens,  or  for  the  Senate,  which 
never  divorced  expediency  from  honor,  to  contend 
with  the  enemy  by  arms,  or  by  poison  ?  If  empire 
is  to  be  sought  for  the  sake  of  glory,  let  crime,  in 
which  there  can  be  no  glory,  be  excluded ;  but  if 
power  be  sought  by  any  means  whatsoever,  it  can 
be  of  no  service  conjoined  with  infamy.  Therefore 
the  proposal  of  Lucius  Philippus,  the  son  of  Quin- 
tus,  was  not  expedient,  namely,  that  the  states 
which  by  a  decree  of  the  Senate  Lucius  Sulla,  for 
money  received  from  them,^  had  freed  from  tribute 
should  be  taxed  again,  without  our  returning  to  them 
the  money  that  they  had  paid  for  their  exemption. 
The  Senate  assented  to  the  proposal,  to  the  disgrace 
of  the  empire.  Pirates  keep  better  faith.  But  it 
may  be  said  that  the  revenues  were  increased,  and 

1  Probably  some  of  the  petty  states  that  had  been  obtained  by 
the  conquest  of  Mithridates,  and  to  which  Sulla  had  sold  this 
exemption  for  the  money  needed  to  pay  his  army. 


Cicero  de  OJiciis.  223 

it  was  therefore  expedient.  How  long  will  men 
dare  to  call  anything  expedient  that  is  not  right  ? 
Can  odium  and  infamy  be  of  service  to  any  empire, 
whicli  ought  to  be  supported  by  glory  and  by  the 
good- will  of  its  allies  ?  I  was  often  at  variance 
even  with  my  friend  Cato.  He  seemed  to  me  to 
guard  the  treasury  and  the  revenues  too  obstinately, 
to  refuse  everything  to  the  farmers  of  the  revenue,^ 
and  many  things  to  our  allies ;  while  we  ought  to  be 
generous  to  our  allies,  and  to  deal  with  the  farmers 
of  the  revenue  as  leniently  as  we  individually  do 
with  our  own  tenants,  especially  as  the  union  of 
orders  2  to  which  such*  a  course  would  conduce  is 
for  the  well-being  of  the  state.  Curio,  too,  was 
entirely  in  the  wrong,  when  he  said  that  the  cause 
of  the  colonies  north  of  the  Po  ^  was  just,  but  always 
added,  "  Let  expediency  prevail."  He  should  have 
said  that  it  was  not  just  because  it  was  not  expe- 
dient for  the  state,  rather  than  have  acknowledged 
it  as  just  while  saying  that  it  was  not  expedient. 

1  They  were  sometimes  in  the  position  of  rural  tenants  when 
the  crops  failed.  There  were  times  when  the  under-farmers  (2^o'>'- 
titorcs)  could  not  make  their  collections  of  taxes  in  full  and  in  due 
season;  but  Cato  was  in  favor  of  the  most  rigid  treatment  of  the 
farmers-general  (publicani),  however  they  might  fare  with  their 
subordinates. 

2  The  farmers  of  the  revenue  were  of  equestrian  rank,  and  it 
was  deemed  desirable  that  the  equites  should  be  on  good  terms 
with  the  Senate. 

*  They  had  claimed  the  full  rights  of  citizenship  in  common 
with  the  colonies  south  of  the  Po,  —  a  claim  which  Caesar 
granted. 


224  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

23.  The  Sixth  Book  of  Hecato's  treatise  on  Duties 
is  full  of  such  questions  as  these.  "Ought  a  good 
man  in  a  time  of  extreme  dearth  to  continue  to 
furnish  food  to  his  slaves  ? "  He  discusses  both 
sides  of  the  question,  yet  at  the  last  makes  expe- 
diency rather  than  humanity  the  standard  of  duty. 
He  asks,  "  If  in  a  storm  at  sea  something  must  be 
thrown  overboard,  shall  it  be  a  valuable  horse,  or  a 
slave  of  no  value  ? "  In  this  case  interest  inclines 
in  one  direction,  humanity  in  the  other.  "  If  in  case 
of  shipwreck  a  fool  gets  possession  of  a  plank,  shall 
a  wise  man  wrest  it  from  him  if  he  can  ? "  He 
answers  in  the  negative,  because  it  would  be  unjust. 
"What  may  the  master  of  the  ship  do  in  such  a 
case  ?  May  he  not  take  possession  of  the  plank  as 
his  own  property  ? "  Not  by  any  means.  He  has 
no  more  right  to  do  this  than  to  throw  a  passenger 
from  the  ship  into  the  sea  because  the  ship  is  his 
own.  Until  it  arrives  at  the  port  to  which  passage 
has  been  taken,  the  ship  belongs  not  to  the  master, 
but  to  the  passengers.  "  What  if  there  be  but  one 
plank  for  two  shipwrecked  passengers,  both  wise 
men  ?  Shall  they  both  try  to  get  possession  of  it, 
or  shall  one  yield  to  the  other  ? "  One  should  give  it 
up  to  the  other;  but  let  that  other  be  the  one  whose 
life  is  the  more  valuable,  either  for  his  own  sake  or 
for  that  of  the  state.  "What  if  their  claims  are 
equal  ? "  There  must  be  no  quarrel  between  them, 
but  one  must  yield  to  the  other,  as  if  he  had  come 
off  second-best  in  drawinc:  lots  or  at  odd  and  even. 


Cicero  de  Ojfficiis.  225 

"  What  if  a  father  pillages  temples,  or  makes  au , 
underground  passage  to  the  public  treasury  ?  Shall 
the  son  give  information  to  the  magistrates  ? "  That 
indeed  would  be  wrong.  Nay,  he  may  even  defend 
his  father  if  he  should  be  publicly  accused.  "  Does 
not  then  duty  to  the  country  take  precedence  of  all 
other  duties  ? "  Yes,  indeed  ;  but  it  is  for  the  wel-  j 
fare  of  the  country  to  have  citizens  dutiful  toward  j 
their  parents.  "What  if  the  father  should  attempt  to 
usurp  supreme  authority,  or  to  betray  the  country  ? 
Shall  the  son  keep  silence  ? "  Yes,  but  he  wall  im- 
plore his  father  not  to  do  so.  If  that  is  of  no  avail,  he 
wUl  take  him  earnestly  to  task  ;  will  even  threaten 
him ;  yet  at  the  last,  if  there  is  danger  of  great  harm 
to  the  country,  he  will  prefer  the  country's  safety  to 
his  father's  safety.  He  asks  also,  "  If  a  wise  man 
by  an  oversight  takes  counterfeit  coins  for  good, 
when  he  ascertains  what  they  are,  shall  he  pay  them 
for  good  money  to  his  creditors  ? "  Diogenes  says, 
Yes;  Antipater,  No,  and  I  agree  with  him.  "  Ought 
the  seller  of  wine  that  he  knows  will  not  keep,  to 
tell  his  purchasers  ? "  Diogenes  says  that  there  is 
no  need  of  it ;  Antipater  thinks  that  a  good  man 
would  tell.  These  questions  are  like  mooted  points 
of  law,  among  the  Stoics.  "  In  selling  a  slave,  are 
his  faults  to  be  told?  Not  such  faults  as,  if  not 
mentioned,  would  by  the  civil  law  throw  the  slave 
back  upon  the  vender's  hands,  but  such  as  his  being 
a  liar,  a  gambler,  thievish,  a  drunkard  ? "  Antipater 
says  that  they  are  to  be  told ;  Diogenes,  that  they 

15 


226  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

are  not.  "  If  any  one  selling  gold  thinks  that  it  is 
brass  that  he  is  selling,  will  a  good  man  tell  him 
that  it  is  gold,  or  will  he  buy  for  a  shilling  ^  what  is 
worth  a  thousand  shillings  ? "  It  is  plain  enough 
by  this  time  what  I  think  of  these  things,  and  what 
a  difference  of  opinion  there  is  among  tlie  philoso- 
phers that  I  have  named.^ 

24.  It  is  asked  whether  agreements  and  promises 
are  always  to  be  kept,  if  made  —  to  boiTow  the 
language  of  the  praetorian  edict  —  neither  by  force 
nor  by  criminal  fraud.  If  one  had  given  to  a  person 
j  a  remedy  for  the  dropsy,  and  had  stipulated  that  he 
should  never  afterward  use  the  medicine,  —  in  case 
that  person,  having  been  cured  by  the  medicine, 
were  to  contract  the  same  disease  some  years  after- 
ward, and  could  not  obtain  from  him  with  whom  he 
had  made  the  agreement  leave  to  use  the  remedy 
again,  what  ought  he  to  do  ?  Since  he  who  would 
refuse  such  a  request  would  be  inhuman,  and  no 
harm  can  be  done  to  him  by  using  the  remedy, 
regard  should  be  paid  to  life  and  health.     What,  if 

^  Latin,  denarncs.  The  denariics  was  about  equivalent  to  our 
New  England  shilling. 

2  Though  Cicero  seems  to  have  thought  rightly  on  these  ques- 
tions, the  very  fact  that  they  could  be  mooted  among  members  of 
the  school  of  philosophy  most  noted  for  its  high  ethical  standard, 
gives  us  a  not  very  favorable  impression  of  pre-Christian  ethics  ; 
and  the  contrast  between  these  Stoics  and  certain  of  the  post- 
Christian,  though  non-Christian  moralists,  gives  color  to  the 
belief  that  Christianity  had  somehow  penetrated  where  it  was 
not  recognized- 


h 


0- Vi-iW'   ^^'V'tojL    ^iJJtiv^^ 


ijsviv-^^^u  Vh/  XSjt*-*>ax^''-^     ^ 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  227 

a  wise  man  were  asked  by  one  who  wants  to  make 
him  his  heir  to  the  amount  of  a  million  of  sesterces,^ 
to  promise  that  before  taking  possession  of  his 
legacy  he  will  dance  in  the  forum  publicly  by  day- 
light, and  if  without  this  promise  the  testator  would 
not  have  given  the  legacy  ?  Shall  he  keep  his 
promise,  or  not  ?  I  should  prefer  that  he  had  not 
made  the  promise,  and  this  I  think  would  have 
befitted  his  dignity.  But  since  he  has  made  the 
promise,  if  he  thinks  it  disgraceful  to  dance  in  the 
forum,  the  least  immoral  falsehood  of  the  two  will 
be  for  him  to  break  his  promise  and  decline  the 
legacy,  unless,  perchance,  he  can  expend  that  money 
for  the  state  in  some  great  emergency  of  need,  so 
that  even  dancing  in  the  forum  for  the  country's 
benefit  would  not  be  disgraceful. 

25.  Nor  yet  are  those  promises  to  be  kept  which 
are  not  for  the  advantage  of  those  to  whom  you 
have  made  them.  To  go  back  to  myths,  Phoebus 
having  promised  his  son  Phaethon  that  he  would  do 
whatever  he  wished,  the  son  wished  to  be  taken  up 
into  his  father's  chariot.  He  was  taken  up,  and 
before  he  was  fairly  seated,  he  was  consumed  by  a 
thunderbolt.  How  much  better  would  it  have  been 
if  in  this  case  the  father's  promise  had  not  been 
kept !  What  shall  be  said  of  the  promise  that  The- 
seus exacted  of  Neptune?  Neptune  having  prom- 
ised to  grant  him  three  wishes,  he  asked  for  the 
death  of  his  son  Hippolytus,  whom  he  suspected  of 

1  Nearly  half  a  mUlion  of  our  money. 


228  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

intrigue  with  his  stepmother;  but  when  Theseus 
had  obtained  his  wish  he  was  plunged  into  the 
deepest  sorrow.^  What  shall  we  say  of  Agamem- 
non, who,  having  vowed  to  Diana  the  most  beautiful 
creature  that  should  be  born  that  year  in  his  king- 
dom, immolated  Iphigenia,  because  no  creature  more 
beautiful  was  born  that  year  in  the  kingdom  ?  It 
would  have  been  better  not  to  keep  the  promise 
than  to  commit  so  foul  a  crime.  Therefore  promises 
are  sometimes  not  to  be  kept,  nor  are  deposits 
always  to  be  returned.  If  one  had  deposited  a  sword 
with  you  when  he  was  of  sound  mind,  and  were  to 
ask  for  it  in  a  fit  of  insanity,  to  restore  it  would  be 
wrong ;  not  to  restore  it,  your  duty.  What  if  he 
who  had  deposited  money  with  you  were  to  levy 
war  against  the  country  ?  Should  you  deliver  up 
the  trust  ?  I  think  not;  for  you  would  act  against 
the  state,  which  ought  to  be  nearest  to  your  affection. 
Thus  many  things  which  seem  to  be  right  by  nature 
become  wrong  by  circumstances.  To  keep  promises, 
to  abide  by  agreements,  to  restore  trusts,  by  a  change 
of  expediency  becomes  wrong.  I  think  that  I  have 
now  said  all  that  is  necessary  about  those  things 
that  seem  to  be  expedient  under  the  pretext  of 
prudence,  yet  are  really  opposed  to  justice. 

1  In  Book  I.  §  10,  this  example  is  used  to  substantially  the 
same  purpose,  —  the  object  there  being  to  show,  under  the  head  of 
justice,  that  the  literal  keeping  of  a  promise  may,  under  some 

i peculiar  stress  of  circumstances,  be  virtually  wrong  ;  while  here 
the  proposition  is  that  the  intense  stress  of  expediency  may  make 
that  right  which  has  ih.Q  prima,  facie  asjject  of  wrong. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  229 

But  since  in  the  First  Book  I  derived  duties  from  ^ 
four  sources  of  right,  I  will  adopt  the  same  division  \ 
in  showing  how  hostile  to  virtue  are  those  things  ' 
that  seem  to  be  expedient,  yet  are  not  so.     I  have 
already,  indeed,  treated  of  prudence  which  cunning 
would  fain  imitate,  and  of  justice  which  is  always 
expedient.    There  remain  two  divisions  of  the  right, 
one  of  which  is  witnessed  in  the  greatness   and 
superiority  of  a  lofty  mind ;  the  other,  in  the  shap- 
ing and  government  of  the  life  by  self-restraint  and 
temperance. 

26.  It  seemed  expedient  to  Ulysses,^  —  as  the 
story  has  come  to  us  through  some  of  the  trage- 
dians;''^ Homer  throws  no  such  suspicion  on  him, 
but  there  are  tragedies  that  charge  him  with  having 

1  I  leave  the  ellipsis  as  it  stands  in  the  original. 

2  Notably,  Euripides  and  Sophocles,  as  also  some  of  the  Roman 
tragedians.  The  story  is  that  he,  as  one  of  Helen's  suitors,  was 
the  first  to  propose  the  oath  by  which  they  bound  themselves,  in 
case  the  marital  rights  of  the  successful  suitor  should  be  invaded, 
to  join  in  defending  or  avenging  him.  But  when  he  was  called 
upon  to  fulfil  his  part  of  the  covenant,  he  feigned  insanity,  yoked 
an  ox  and  an  ass  together,  ploughed  a  field  with  them,  and  sowed 
it  with  salt.  Palamedes  took  Telemachus,  and  placed  him  where 
his  father's  plough  would  go  over  him,  and  Ulysses,  by  stopping 
his  plough  so  as  to  avoid  doing  harm  to  the  child,  showed  that  he 
was  not  demented,  and  was  thus  compelled  to  keep  his  agreement 
and  to  bear  his  illustrious  part  in  the  Trojan  war. 

Palamedes,  even  a  more  decidedly  mythical  personage  than 
Ulysses,  is  fabled  to  have  been  the  inventor  of  light-houses,  meas- 
ures, scales,  the  discus,  dice,  the  alphabet,  and  the  mode  of 
regulating  sentries,  —  in  fine,  an  impersonation  of  nearly  all  the 
practical  wisdom  of  the  old  world. 


230  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

purposed  to  escape  service  in  the  war  by  feigning 
insanity.  The  purpose  was  not  right.  "  Yet  it  was 
expedient,"  some  one  perchance  will  say,  "  to  reign 
in  Ithaca,  and  to  live  at  his  ease  with  his  parents, 
with  his  wife,  with  his  son.  Do  you  think  any 
honor  won  in  daily  labors  and  perils  to  be  compared 
with  this  quiet  life  ? "  I,  indeed,  think  that  this 
quiet  life  was  to  be  despised  and  spurned ;  for  the 
repose  which  was  not  right  I  cannot  regard  as  expe- 
dient. What,  think  you,  would  Ulysses  have  heard, 
had  he  persevered  in  his  pretended  insanity  ?  when, 
after  his  greatest  achievements  in  the  war,  he  hears 
from  Ajax :  — 

"  He  who  first  took  the  oath,  and  he  alone, 
As  you  all  know,  forswore  his  plighted  faith. 
Madness  he  feigned,  the  compact  to  evade, 
And  had  not  Palamedes,  with  keen  vision 
And  wise  device,  unmasked  his  craft  and  cunning, 
He  still  had  been  a  perjured  recreant."  ^ 

It  was,  indeed,  better  for  him  to  fight,  not  only  with 
the  enemy,  but  with  the  waves,  as  he  did,  than  to 
desert  Greece  confederated  with  one  mind  to  carry 
war  into  the  country  of  the  barbarians.^  But  let  us 
leave  myths  and  foreign  instances.  Let  us  come  to 
fact  and  to  our  own  history.  Marcus  Atilius  Eegu- 
lus,  when  in  his  second  consulship^  he  was  captured 
by  troops  in  ambush  under  Xanthippus  the  Lace- 

1  These  verses  are  from  the  Armorum  Judicium  of  Pacuvius. 
'  The  Greeks  called  all  except  themselves  barbarians. 
*  He  was  proconsul  in  Africa,  his  second  consulship  having 
expired  the  previous  year. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  231 

daemonian,  —  Hamilcar,  Hannibal's  father,  being 
commander-in-chief,  —  was  sent  to  the  Senate  under 
oath  that,  unless  certain  prisoners  of  high  rank  were 
restored  to  the  Carthaginians,  he  would  himself 
return  to  Carthage.  He  on  his  arrival  at  Kome  saw 
the  semblance  of  expediency  —  but,  as  fact  shows, 
regarded  it  as  delusive  —  to  be  in  his  own  home, 
with  his  wife,  with  his  children ;  to  maintain  unim- 
paired his  consular  dignity,  regarding  the  calamity 
which  he  had  incurred  in  battle  as  but  a  common 
incident  in  the  fortunes  of  war.  Who  can  deny  that 
this  was  expedient  ?  Who,  think  you  ?  Magna- 
nimity and  Fortitude  deny  this. 

27.  Do  you  ask  for  better  authorities  ?  It  is  the 
property  of  these  virtues  to  fear  nothing,  to  despise 
all  human  vicissitudes,  to  think  nothing  that  can 
happen  to  man  intolerable.  And  so  what  did  he 
do  ?  He  came  to  the  Senate;  he  stated  his  mission; 
he  refused  to  give  his  own  vote  in  the  case,  because 
so  long  as  he  was  bound  by  his  oath  to  the  enemy 
he  was  not  a  senator.  He,  however,  denied  the 
expediency  of  sending  back  the  prisoners  of  war 
("O  foolish  man,"  some  one  may  have  said,  "to 
contend  against  his  own  interest ")  ;  for  the  prison- 
ers were  young  men  and  good  leaders,  while  his 
vigor  was  already  impaired  by  age.  By  virtue  of 
his  influence  the  prisoners  were  retained.  He  him- 
self returned  to  Carthage,  nor  did  his  love  for  his 
country  or  his  kindred  retain  him.  Yet  he  then 
well  knew  that  he  was  returning  to  an  implacably 


232 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


I  w/ 


cruel  enemy  and  to  excruciating  punishment ;  but 
he  considered  his  oath  as  binding.  Thus  when  he 
was  killed  by  being  deprived  of  sleep  ^  he  was  in  a 
better  condition  than  if  he  had  remained  at  home, 
a  captive  old  man,  a  perjurer  of  consular  dignity. 
"  Yet  he  acted  foolishly,  in  not  only  declining  to 
vote  in  favor  of  sending  the  prisoners  back,  but  in 
also  giving  his  advice  against  their  release."  How, 
foolishly  ?  Did  he  act  foolishly,  if  it  was  for  the 
good  of  the  state  ?  Can  what  is  harmful  to  the 
state  be  expedient  for  any  citizen  ? 

28.  Men  subvert  the  very  foundations  of  nature 
when  they  separate  expediency  from  the  right.  For 
we  all  seek  what  is  expedient,  and  are  drawn  toward 
it,  nor  can  we  anyhow  resist  its  attraction.  For- 
sooth, who  is  there  that  shuns  the  things  that  are 
expedient  ?  Or  rather,  who  is  there  that  does  not 
pursue  them  with  the  utmost  earnestness  ?  But 
because  we  never  can  find  what  is  expedient,  save 
in  good  report,  honor,  right,  we  therefore  esteem 
these  first  and  highest ;  we  regard  expediency  thus 

1  Accounts  as  to  the  death  of  Eegulus  vaiy,  —  some  saying  that 
he  was  put  into  a  chest  studded  in  the  inside  with  nails;  others, 
that  his  eyebrows  were  cut  off,  and  his  face  then  exposed  to  the 
full  glare  of  an  African  sun;  while  it  would  seem  that  Cicero  had 
a  still  different  account,  that  he  died  from  enforced  wakefulness. 
Niebuhr  sees  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  was  tortured  or  killed, 
indeed,  has  very  little  faith  in  any  part  of  his  story,  and  it  is 
maintained  by  some  of  the  writers  of  his  school  that  the  report  of 
his  being  so  tortured  was  circulated  in  Rome  to  excuse  the  cruelties 
perpetrated  by  the  family  of  Regulus  on  Carthaginian  captives 
committed  to  their  charge. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  233 

defined  as  not  so  much  respectable  as  indispensable. 
"  What  is  there  in  an  oath  ? "  some  one  may  say. 
*'  Do  we  fear  the  anger  of  Jupiter  ?  It  is  indeed 
an  opinion  common  to  all  philosophers,  not  only  to 
those  who  believe  that  the  Deity  neither  does  any- 
thing nor  makes  manifestation  of  himself  to  any 
other  being,^  but  equally  to  those  who  suppose  him 
always  active  in  the  government  and  direction  of 
events,^  that  the  Deity  is  never  angry  and  never 
does  harm.  But  what  more  harm  could  an  angry 
Jupiter  have  done  than  Eegulus  did  to  himself? 
There  was  then  no  power  of  religion  that  could 
supersede  expediency  so  weighty.  Was  his  motive 
to  avoid  acting  basely  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  least 
of  evils  are  to  be  chosen.  Was  then  the  evil  in  the 
baseness  of  which  you  speak  so  great  as  that  of  the 
torture  which  he  had  to  bear?  Then  again,  this 
sentiment  from  Attius, — 

'  Faith  hast  thou  broken  ? ' 
'I  neither  gave  nor  give  faith  to  the  faithless,*  * 

although  put  into  the  mouth  of  an  impious  king, 
yet  is  admirably  well  said."  They  add  also  that  as 
we  say  that  some  things  seem  expedient  that  are 
not  so,  in  like  manner  they  say  that  some  things 
seem  right  that  are  not  so,  —  as,  for  instance,  this 
very  thing,  returning  to  torture  for  the  sake  of  pre- 

1  The  Epicureans.  2  r^^^  Stoics. 

8  This  is  from  the  Atreiis  of  Attius.  Thyestes  asks  Atreus, 
Fregistin  fidcm  ?  and  Atreus  replies  that  he  denies  the  obligation 
of  keeping  good  faith  with  treacherous  men. 


234  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

serving  an  oath  inviolate  seems  right,  yet  becomes 
wrong,  because  a  promise  extorted  by  force  ought  not 
to  be  ratified.  They  still  further  say  that  whatever 
is  highly  expedient  becomes  right,  even  if  it  did  not 
seem  so  before. 

29.  This  is  the  substance  of  the  case  against 
Eegulus.  Let  us  now  examine  the  first  count.  "  He 
had  no  need  to  fear  any  harm  from  Jupiter's  anger ; 
for  Jupiter  is  not  wont  either  to  be  angry  or  to  do 
harm."  This  argument  is  of  no  more  force  against 
Eegulus  than  against  any  oath.  But  in  an  oath  the 
point  to  be  considered  is  not  what  it  threatens,  but 
what  it  means.  For  an  oath  is  a  religious  affirma- 
tion. Therefore  what  you  positively  promise  as  in 
the  presence  of  God  ought  to  be  performed.  The 
question,  then,  no  longer  concerns  the  anger  of  the 
gods  (for  there  is  no  such  thing),  but  it  is  a  question 
of  honesty  and  good  faith.  Ennius  well  says  :  — 
"  Oh  genial,  bright- winged  Faith,  and  oath  of  Jove  !" 

He,  then,  who  profanes  an  oath,  profanes  Faith, 
whom  —  as  it  is  said  in  Cato's  speech  —  our  ances- 
tors chose  to  have  in  the  Capitol,^  hard  by  the 
shrine  of  Jupiter  Best  and  Greatest.  "  Then,  too, 
Jupiter,  if  he  had  been  angry,  could  not  have  done 
more  harm  to  Eegulus  than  Eegulus  did  to  himself." 
Undoubtedly,  if  pain  were  the  only  evil.  But  phi- 
losophers of  the  highest  authority  affirm,  not  only 
that  pain  is  not  the  greatest  evil,  but  that  it  is  not 

1  Numa  was  said  to  have  built  a  temple  to  Fides  on  the  Capi- 
toline  Hill. 


Cicero  de  Offidis.  235 

even  an  evil  For  the  truth  of  this  do  not,  I  beg 
you,  cast  reproach  on  the  testimony  of  Eegulus,  a 
witness  not  of  moderate,  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  of 
the  very  highest  credibility ;  for  what  more  trust- 
worthy witness  can  you  ask  than  the  chief  man  of 
the  Eoman  people,  who  of  his  own  accord  endured 
torture  that  he  might  keep  duty  inviolate  ?  Then, 
as  to  what  they  say  about  "  the  least  of  evils,"  -^ 
namely,  that  meanness  is  to  be  preferred  to  calamity, 
—  is  there  any  evil  greater  than  meanness  ?  If  such 
meanness  as  there  is  in  the  case  of  bodily  deformity 
has  in  it  something  offensive,  in  what  vile  esteem 
ought  the  depravation  and  foulness  of  soul  to  be 
held  !  Therefore  those  who  take  the  strongest 
ground  on  these  matters  dare  to  affirm  that  mean- 
ness of  soul  is  the  only  evil ;  those  who  speak  with 
more  laxity  do  not  hesitate  to  call  it  the  greatest  of 
evils.     As  to  the  saying, 

"  I  neither  gave  nor  give  faith  to  the  faithless," 

the  poet  had  a  right  to  say  this ;  for  in  bringing 
Atreus  upon  the  stage,  he  had  to  support  the  char- 
acter. But  if  those  who  are  reasoning  against  Eegu- 
lus assume  that  the  faith  pledged  to  a  faithless 
person  is  null,  let  them  look  to  it  lest  there  be 
found  here  a  subterfuge  for  perjury.  Even  belliger- 
ents have  rights,  and  an  oath  is  often  to  be  kept 
sacred  with  an  enemy.  For  what  was  so  sworn  that 
the  mind  of  him  who  took  the  oath  at  the  time  con- 
fessed the  obligation,  ought  to  be  fulfilled ;  what  was 


236 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


not  so  sworn  may  be  left  unfulfilled  without  per- 
jury.^ Thus  you  would  not  pay  robbers  a  price  that 
you  had  agreed  to  pay  for  your  life ;  it  is  no  wrong 
if  you  fail  to  do  this  after  having  promised  with 
an  oath.  For  a  robber  ^  is  not  included  in  the  list 
of  belligerents,  but  is  the  common  enemy  of  all. 
Between  him  and  other  men  there  ought  to  be 
neither  mutual  confidence  nor  binding  oath.  For 
it  is  not  simply  swearing  what  is  false  that  consti- 
tutes perjury;  but  it  is  perjury  not  to  perform  what 
you  have  sworn,  as  it  is  expressed  in  our  legal  form, 
in  the  purpose  of  your  own  mind.  Euripides  makes 
a  proper  distinction  when  he  says  : — 

"  I  swore  in  words ;  my  mind  I  keep  unsworn."  ' 

But  Eegulus  was  bound  in  duty  not  to  violate 
conditions  and  agreements  made  in  war  and  with 
an   enemy ;  for  his  concern  was  with  a  rightful 

1  The  most  patent  sophistry.  If  the  sincerity  with  which  an 
I  oath  is  taken  be  the  sole  ground  of  its  sacredness,  free  license  is 
! opened  for  unnumbered  forms  of  perjury,  —  certainly  for  the  pro- 
jverbially  untrustworthy  custom-house  oaths,  than  which  the  civili- 
'zation  of  our  time  has  had  no  fouler  opprobrium. 

2  Latin,  pirata,  which  commonly  means  a  robber  by  sea,  yet  is 
sometimes  used,  as  here,  in  the  same  sense  with  praedo,  a  robber 
by  land. 

8  From  the  Hippolytus.  Unfortunately  for  Cicero's  use  of 
these  words,  which  Euripides  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Hippolytus, 
the  oath  is  regarded  as  sacred.  He  had  sworn  that  he  would  not 
divulge  Phaedra's  guilty  secret  to  his  father,  and  in  the  scene 
from  which  this  verse  is  taken  he  says  that  but  for  the  oath  into 
which  he  had  been  entrai)ped  unawares,  nothing  could  have  pre- 
vented him  from  telling  his  father  the  whole  truth. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  237 

and  legitimate  enemy,  and  as  to  such  enemies  our 
whole  fecial  law  and  many  mutual  rights  were 
valid  between  them  and  us.  If  it  were  not  so,  the 
Senate  would  never  have  surrendered  to  enemies 
men  of  renown  as  prisoners. 

30.  This  they  did  in  the  case  of  Titus  Veturius 
and  Spurius  Postumius,  who,  in  their  second  con- 
sulship, after  the  defeat  at  Caudium  when  our  sol-< 
diers  passed  under  the  yoke,  having  concluded  a 
peace  with  the  Samnites  witiiout  the  consent  of  the 
people  and  the  Senate,^  were  delivered  up  to  the 
Samnites.  At  the  same  time  Tiberius  Numicius 
and  Quintus  Maelius,  then  tribunes  of  the  people, 
because  the  peace  had  been  concluded  by  their  au- 
thority, were  also  surrendered,  to  consummate  the 
repudiation  of  the  treaty  with  the  Samnites.  More- 
over, Postumius  himself,  who  was  among  those 
surrendered,  advised  and  supported  the  measure. 
Many  years  afterward  the  same  thing  was  done  by 
Caius  Mancinus,  who,  having  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Xumantians  without  authority  from  the  Senate, 
was  surrendered  to  them,  he  himself  advising  the 
passage  by  the  people  of  the  decree  to  that  effect, 
reported  from  the  Senate  by  Publius  Furius  and 

1  The  commanders,  even  were  they  the  consuls,  could  not  law- 
fully make  a  treaty.  The  most  that  they  had  a  right  to  do  was 
to  make  a  tnice  or  an  armistice,  or  to  name  terms  of  peace  to  be 
ratified  by  the  Senate  and  people.  The  principle  thus  recognized 
is  so  obvious  that  if  war  be  not,  in  Cicero's  phrase,  "  opposed  to 
nature, "  it  might  seem  to  belong  to  the  law  of  nature  no  less  than 
to  the  law  of  nations. 


238  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

Sextus  Atilius.  He  acted  more  honorably  than 
Quintus  Pompeius,  who  when  he  was  in  the  same 
case  begged  to  be  let  off,  and  the  decree  of  surren- 
der was  not  passed.  Here  what  seemed  expedient 
preponderated  over  the  right;  in  the  former  in- 
stances the  false  show  of  expediency  was  outweighed 
by  the  authority  of  the  right.  "  But  a  promise  ex- 
acted by  force  ought  not  to  be  performed."  As  if 
force  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  a  brave  man. 
"  Stni,  why  did  he  go  to  the  Senate  for  the  special 
purpose  of  dissuading  them  from  surrendering  the 
prisoners  ? "  In  asking  this  question,  you  cast  re- 
proach on  what  was  greatest  in  Eegulus.  For  he 
did  not  make  himself  judge  in  his  own  case ;  he 
undertook  the  management  of  the  case  that  the 
Senate  might  decide  upon  it,  and  unless  he  had  led 
the  way  to  the  decision  by  his  authority,  the  pris- 
oners would  have  been  returned.  Thus  Eegulus 
would  have  remained  safe  in  his  own  country. 
Because  he  thought  that  this  was  not  expedient  for 
the  country,  he  believed  it  right  for  himself  to  ex- 
press his  opinion  and  to  suffer.  Still  further,  as  to 
their  saying  that  whatever  is  highly  expedient  be- 
comes right,  the  truth  is  that  it  is  right,  not  that 
it  becomes  right.  For  nothing  is  expedient  which 
is  not  also  right,  nor  is  anything  right  because  it  is 
expedient,  but  expedient  because  it  is  right.  There- 
fore from  many  remarkable  examples  it  would  be 
difficult  to  name  one  more  praiseworthy  or  illus- 
trious than  this. 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  239 

31.  Of  all  that  is  thus  praiseworthy  in  the  con- 
duct of  Eegulus  the  one  thing  specially  worthy  of 
admiration  is  that  he  gave  his  advice  in  favor  of 
retaining  the  prisoners.  That,  having  thus  advised, 
he  returned,  no}v  seems  to  us  admirable ;  in  those 
times  he  could  not  have  done  otherwise.  This 
merit  therefore  belongs  to  the  times,  not  to  the  man ; 
for  our  ancestors  considered  no  bond  more  stringent 
than  an  oath  in  securing  good  faith.  This  is  de- 
clared by  the  Sacred  Laws;^  it  is  declared  by  treaties 
in  which  good  faith  even  with  an  enemy  is  made 
binding;  it  is  declared  by  the  examinations  and 
sentences  of  the  censors,  who  used  to  take  no  more 
diligent  cognizance  of  any  other  subject  than  they 
took  of  oaths.  Marcus  Pomponius,  tribune  of  the 
people,  gave  notice  of  an  impeachment  to  Lucius 
Manlius,  son  of  Aulus,  after  his  dictatorship,  because 
he  had  illegally  added  a  few  days  to  the  term  of  his 
dictatorship.  He  also  reproached  him  with  having 
banished  his  son  Titus  from  society  and  ordered 

1  Latin,  leges  sacratae.  They  were,  probably,  laws  for  the 
violation  of  which  the  criminal  and  his  property  were  nominally 
consecrated  to  some  god,  i.  e.  he  execrated  and  his  property  con- 
fiscated, —  laws  which  had  in  Cicero's  time  become  obsolete,  as  had 
the  strict  exercise  of  the  censorial  animadversion  in  the  case  of 
perjury.  Of  this  class  were  the  laws  passed  on  Mons  Sacer  on  the 
occasion  of  the  first  secession  of  the  plebeians  from  Rome.  Some 
commentators  say  that  these  laws  were  the  only  ones  known  as 
leges  sacratae.  Yet  another  opinion  is  that  the  leges  sacratae  cor- 
responded to  the  canon  law  of  Christendom,  — that  there  were 
certain  offences,  perjmy  among  the  rest»  thfr  le^l  cognizance  of 
which  belonged  to  the  priests. 


240  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

him  to  live  in  the  country.  "When  the  young  man, 
the  son  of  Manlius,  heard  that  legal  proceedings 
were  instituted  against  his  father,  he  is  said  to  have 
hastened  to  Rome,  and  to  have  come  to  the  house 
of  Pomponius  at  early  dawn.  On  his  being  an- 
nounced, Pomponius,  supposing  that  he  had  come 
in  anger  to  bring  some  charge  against  his  father, 
rose  from  his  bed,  and  suffering  none  others  to  be 
present,  gave  orders  for  the  young  man  to  come  to 
him.  He,  on  entering,  at  once  drew  his  sword,  and 
swore  that  he  would  kill  Pomponius  instantly 
unless  he  gave  his  oath  to  drop  the  prosecution. 
Pomponius,  constrained  by  imminent  peril,  took  the 
oath  ;  did  not  lay  the  accusation  before  the  peo- 
ple ;  told  why  he  had  been  compelled  to  drop  the 
CEise  ;  discharged  Manlius.  Such  was  the  importance 
attached  to  an  oath  in  those  times.  This  Titus 
Manlius  is  the  one  who  obtained  his  surname  ^  near 
the  Anio  from  a  collar  taken  from  a  Gaul  who  had 
challenged  him  and  was  killed  by  him,  in  whose 
third  consulship  the  Latin  army  was  scattered  and 
put  to  flight  near  the  Yeseris,  —  a  very  distinguished 
man,  as  bitterly  severe  toward  his  son  ^  as  he  had 
been  excessively  kind  to  his  father. 

1  Torquatus. 

2  Shortly  before  this  very  battle  of  Veseris  the  consuls  gave 
orders  that  no  Roman  should  engage  in  single  combat  with  any 
soldier  of  the  opposing  army.  The  son  of  Torquatus,  driven 
almost  to  madness  by  the  taunts  and  insults  of  a  Tuscan  soldier, 
accepted  his  challenge,  killed  him,  and  brought  the  trophies  of 
the  successful  conflict  to  his  father,  who  immediately  ordered  the 
youth  to  be  beheaded. 


Cicero  de  Officiis. 


241 


32.  But  as  Eegulus  merits  renown  for  keeping 
his  oath  inviolate,  so  are  those  ten  whom,  after  the 
battle  of  Cannae,  Hannibal  sent  to  the  Senate  under 
oath  that  they  would  return  to  the  camp  that  had 
fallen  into  the  possession  of  the  Carthaginians, 
unless  they  obtained  the  redemption  of  the  prisoners 
of  war,  to  be  held  in  the  vilest  esteem,  if  they  really 
did  not  return.  As  to  these  men  accounts  vary.^ 
Polybius,  a  fully  trustworthy  authority,  says  that 
of  ten  men  of  the  highest  rank  who  were  sent,  nine 
returned,  not  having  obtained  from  the  Senate  the 
release  of  the  prisoners,  but  that  one  who  had  gone 
back  to  the  camp  shortly  after  leaving  it  on  the  pre- 
tence of  having  forgotten  something,  remained  in 
Eome.     By  his  return  to  the  camp  he  maintained 

1  This  story,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  told  in  a  slightly  dif- 
ferent form  in  Book  I.  §  13.  The  passage  in  which  that  version 
of  it  occurs  is  wanting  in  some  manuscripts,  and  omitted  in  some 
editions  ;  but  the  critical  evidence  is  in  its  favor.  It  is  appro- 
priately told  in  each  connection,  and  Cicero  is  never  unwilling 
to  tell  the  same  story  twice,  if  it  will  in  each  instance  serve  the 
purpose  in  hand.  There  seems  to  have  been  about  the  Punic 
wars,  as  about  many  passages  of  Roman  history,  a  strange  min- 
gling of  authentic  narrative  and  popular  tradition,  so  that  of 
events  that  undoubtedly  took  place  there  are  often  several  ver- 
sionsi  The  science  of  historical  criticism  had  not  been  even 
conceived  of,  and  we  find  that  writers,  Plutarch  included,  always 
select  the  version  of  a  story  tliat  will  best  point  a  moral  or  illus- 
trate a  character. 

Aulus  Gellius  says  that  of  the  ten  Eomans  sent  home  by  Han- 
nibal  eight  returned,  and  two  who  had  evaded  their  oath  by 
fraud  remained  in  Eome,  branded  with  ignominy  by  the  censors, 
and  the  objects  of  universal  contempt  and  scorn. 
16 


\ 


242  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

that  he  was  acquitted  of  his  oath;  but  wrongly, 
for  deceit  aggravates  perjury  instead  of  annulling  it. 
This  was,  then,  a  foolish  cunning  perversely  assum- 
ing the  aspect  of  prudence.  The  Senate,  therefore, 
decreed  that  the  rogue  and  cheat  should  be  sent  in 
chains  to  Hannibal.  But  there  was  something  still 
greater  on  the  part  of  the  Eoraan  people.  Hannibal 
held  as  prisoners  eight  thousand  men,  who  had  not 
been  taken  in  battle  or  escaped  when  in  peril  of 
death,  but  who  had  been  left  in  camp  by  Paulus 
and  Varro.  The  Senate  refused  to  have  them  re- 
deemed, though  it  might  have  been  done  for  a  small 
sum  of  money,  that  it  might  be  ingrafted  in  the 
minds  of  our  soldiers  that  they  must  either  conquer 
or  die.  Polybius  writes  that  when  Hannibal  heard 
this  his  spirit  was  broken,  because  the  Senate  and 
the  Eoman  people  had  borne  their  reverses  with  so 
lofty  a  mind.  Thus  does  what  seems  expedient 
sink  out  of  account  when  brought  into  comparison 
with  the  right.  I  ought  to  add  that  Acilius,  who 
wrote  a  history  in  Greek,  says  that  there  were  sev- 
eral who  returned  to  the  camp  to  free  themselves 
from  their  oath  by  the  same  equivocation,  and  that 
they  were  branded  with  every  token  of  ignominy 
by  the  censors.  We  may  close  this  head  ;  for  it  is 
perfectly  clear  that  whatever  is  done  with  a  timid, 
sordid,  abject  mind  —  such  as  the  action  of  Eegulus 
would  have  been,  had  he  either  given  his  opinion 
concerning  the  prisoners  in  his  own  interest  and  not 
in  that  of  the  state,  or  consented  to  remain  at  home 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  243 

— is  not  expedient,  because  it  is  infamous,  foul, 
base. 

33.  There  remains  the  fourth  division,  compre- 
hending becomingness,  moderation,  discretion,  self- 
restraint,  temperance.  Can  anything  be  expedient 
which  is  opposed  to  this  choir  ^  of  such  virtues  ? 
However,  those  of  the  Cyrenaic  schooP  and  the  dis- 
ciples of  Anniceris,^  philosophers  only  in  name,  fol- 
lowed Aristippus  in  making  all  good  to  consist  in 
pleasure,  and  regarded  virtue  as  commendable  only 
in  its  pleasure-giving  capacity.  They  having  passed 
almost  out  of  notice,  Epicurus  holds  his  ground  as 
an  advocate  and  teacher  of  nearly  the  same  doctrine. 
With  these  I  must  contend,  as  the  phrase  is,  with 
infantry  and  cavalry,^  if  I  mean  to  guard  and  main- 

1  This  figure  is  used  in  another  instance  by  Cicero,  in  the  i 
Tusculanae  Disputatioiies,  Book  V.  It  is  also  used  once  in  the 
New  Testament,  where  our  English  version  gives  no  intimation 
of  it,  in  2  Peter  i.  5.  "With  all  diligence  bring  up  and  lead 
on  in  the  choir  [or  dance]  (iirixopTryfiffare)  on  [or  next  to]  faith, 
virtue,"  &c. 

2  The  Cyrenaic  school  was  founded  by  Aristippus.  See  Book 
I,  §  41,  note. 

8  Anniceris  is  regarded  as  having  been  of  the  Cyrenaic  school, 
and  differed  from  Aristippus  chiefly  in  admitting  that  the  social 
virtues  are  good  in  themselves,  yet  good  because,  though  they 
sometimes  give  trouble,  their  pleasure-yielding  capacity  tran- 
scends the  labor,  inconvenience,  and  sorrow  that  may  incidentally 
result  from  them. 

*  Latin,  viris  equisque,  literally,  with  men  and  horses,  i.  e.  in 
full  military  array,  with  all  the  strength  that  I  can  muster,  with 
might  and  main. 


244  Cicero  de  Officiis. 

tain  tlie  right.  For  if  not  only  expediency  but 
everything  appertaining  to  a  happy  life  consists 
in  a  strong  constitution  of  body  and  in  a  reason- 
able expectation  of  preserving  that  constitution,  as 
Metrodorus^  writes,  certainly  this  expediency — the 
highest  expediency  in  the  opinion  of  those  who 
thus  reason  —  will  be  in  conflict  with  the  right. 
For  where,  in  the  first  place,  shall  room  be  found  for 
prudence  ?  In  raking  together  from  every  quarter 
objects  to  delight  the  senses  ?  How  wretched  this 
slavery  of  virtue  in  bondage  to  pleasure  !  What, 
then,  is  the  function  of  prudence  ?    To  choose  pleas- 

>  ures  intelligently  ?  Grant  that  nothing  can  be  more 
delightful  than  this,  what  can  be  imagined  meaner  ? 
Then,  again,  what  room  is  there  for  fortitude,  which 

j  is  the  contempt  of  pain  and  labor,  with  him  who 
calls  pain  the  greatest  of  evils  ?  For  although  Epi- 
curus may  in  many  places,  as  he  does,  speak  bravely 
enough  about  pain,  we  are  to  look,  not  at  what  he 
says,  but  at  what  it  is  consistent  for  him  to  say, 
who  acknowledged  no  good  except  pleasure,  no  evil 
except  pain.  Thus  also,  if  I  listen  to  him  about 
self-restraint  and  temperance,  he  says  indeed  much 
in  many  places ;  but,  as  the  phrase  is,  the  water 

r      ^  The  disciple,  inseparable  companion,  and  intimate  friend  of 

I  Epicurus,  and  his  destined  successor,  though  Epicurus  outlived 

him  by  seven  years.     He  gave  his  master's  philosophy  it^  fullest 

development  in  the  direction  of  sensualitj',  expressly  and  seriously 

maintaining  that  the  organs  of  digestion  furnish  the  true  test  and 

i  measure  for  everything  appertaining  to  a  happy  life. 


Cicero  cle  Officiis.  245 

does  not  run.^  Tor  how  can  he  commend  temper- 
ance, who  places  the  greatest  good  in  pleasure  ? 
Temperance  is  inimical  to  the  sensual  appetites ; 
but  those  appetites  are  the  handmaids  of  pleasure. 
Yet  as  to  these  three  virtues  they  shift  and  turn 
as  they  can,  and  with  no  little  ingenuity.  They 
bring  in  prudence  as  knowledge  employed  to  sup- 
ply pleasures,  to  drive  away  pain.  They  also  ex- 
plain fortitude  after  some  fashion,  calling  it  the 
method  of  talcing  no  account  of  death  and  putting  up 
with  pain.  Temperance,  too,  they  drag  in,  not  very 
easily  indeed,  but  as  well  as  they  can,  saying  that  the 
highest  pleasure  amounts  to  no  more  than  the  ab- 
sence of  pain.  Justice  totters,  or  rather  lies  prostrate, 
and  so  do  all  those  virtues  which  belong  to  social 
life  and  the  fellowship  of  the  human  race.  Nor  can 
there  be  goodness,  or  generosity,  or  courtesy,  any 
more  than  friendship,  if  they  are  not  to  be  sought 
on  their  own  account,  but  only  with  reference  to 
pleasure.  To  sum  up  the  whole  in  brief,  as  I  have 
maintained  that  there  is  no  expediency  which  is 
opposed  to  the  right,  so  I  affirm  that  all  sensual, 
pleasure  is  opposed  to  the  right.  All  the  more  do 
I  find  fault  with  Calliphon  and  Dinomachus,^  who 

1  A  figure  derived  from  a  watercourse  whose  flow  is  obstructed. 
The  idea  is  :  "\^niat  he  says  about  these  virtues  does  not  flow  easily, 
as  if  he  were  siucere  and  thoroughly  in  earnest. 

2  Their  doctrine  was  that  for  man  pleasure  and  virtue  are  both 
ends  of  being,  —  pleasure  by  nature  and  from  the  beginning, 
virtue  after  experience  of  the  good  that  there  is  in  it. 


246  Cicero  de  Ojfficiis. 

thought  that  they  were  going  to  put  an  end  to  the 
controversy  by  uniting  pleasure  with  the  right,  as 
they  might  yoke  a  beast  with  a  man.  The  right 
does  not  accept  this  union,  spurns  it,  repels  it.  Nor 
can  the  supreme  good,  which  ought  to  be  simple, 
be  mingled  and  compounded  of  widely  unlike  ingre- 
dients. But  of  this  —  for  it  is  a  great  theme  —  I 
treat  more  at  length  elsewhere.^  As  to  the  subject 
now  in  hand,  I  have  sufficiently  shown  how  the 
matter  is  to  be  decided,  if  at  any  time  what  seems 
to  be  expedient  is  repugnant  to  the  right.  But  if 
sensual  pleasure  shall  be  said  even  to  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  expediency,  it  cannot  have  any  union 
with  the  right.  To  make  such  concession  as  we 
can  in  favor  of  pleasure,  the  most  that  we  can  say 
of  it  is  that  it  may  perhaps  give  some  seasoning  to 
life ;  it  certainly  is  of  no  benefit. 

You  have  from  your  father,  my  son  Marcus,  a 
gift,  in  my  opinion,  great ;  but  that  will  be  accord- 
ing to  the  use  that  you  make  of  it.  Although  you 
are  to  take  in  these  three  books  as  guests  among 
the  lectures  of  Cratippus,  yet  as  if,  in  case  I  had 
come  to  Athens  —  which  I  should  indeed  have  done 
had  not  the  country  with  a  loud  voice  recalled  me 
midway  —  you  would  sometimes  have  listened  to  me 
as  well  as  to  Cratippus,  so  since  my  voice  reaches 
you  by  means  of  these  volumes,  you  will  give  them 
as  much  time  as  you  can,  and  you  can  give  them  as 

1  In  the  Second  Book  of  De  Finibus  Bonorum  et  Malorum, 


Cicero  de  Officiis.  247 

much  time  as  you  please.  When  I  shall  have  be- 
come fully  aware  that  you  take  pleasure  in  science  of 
this  type,  while  I  shall,  as  I  hope,  at  no  great  dis- 
tance of  time,  talk  with  you  face  to  face,  I  shall  none 
the  less,  while  we  are  apart,  converse  with  you 
though  absent  from  you.  Farewell,  then,  my  Cicero, 
and  believe  that  you  are  very  dear  to  me,  and  will 
be  much  more  dear  if  you  shall  find  your  happiness 
in  writings  like  these  and  in  such  precepts  as  they 
contain. 


INDEX. 


Academy,  New,  ethical  position  of,  xvi. 

Cicero,  a  disciple  of,  xvii. 
philosophy  of,  105. 
Admiration,  how  worthily  obtained,  125. 
Advocate,  profession  of,  in  Rome,  135  n. 

honored  in  the  best  days  of  the  republic,  150. 
Aedileship,  expenditure  in,  142. 

debts  incurred  in,  143  n. 
Africanus,  the  elder,  busy  leisure  and  onlonely  solitude  of,  170. 
Agrarian  laws,  defined,  160  n. 

ruin  caused  by,  162. 
Alexander  of  Pherae,  tyranny  and  death  of,  117- 
Anger  to  be  excluded  from  all  influence  in  public  affairs,  55. 
Antipater,  ethical  opinions  of,  199. 

Aratus  of  Sicyon,  wise  conduct  of,  with  regard  to  confiscated  es- 
tates, 162. 
Arrogance,  mischief  and  danger  of,  56. 

Beneficence,  rules  for,  29. 

claims  upon,  graduated,  38. 

by  personal  service,  138. 

by  gifts,  140. 
Benefits,  how  best  invested,  130. 

poorly  invested  with  rich  men,  153. 

Caesar,  Julius,  treatment  of  Marseilles  by,  120. 

policy  of,  as  to  novae  tabulae,  165. 
'  guilt  of,  in  the  usurpation  of  supreme  power,  220, 


250  Index. 

Casuistry,  questions  of,  discussed  by  Hecato,  224. 

Cato,  the  Censor,  agriculture  preferred  by,  to  all  other  pui-suits,  168. 

usury  abhorred  by,  168  n. 
Catuli,  the,  pre-eminent  in  conversational  eloquence,  83. 
Change  of  profession,  when  and  how  to  be  made,  75. 
Chicanery  in  the  interpretation  of  compacts,  instances  of,  21. 
Choice  of  a  profession,  75. 
Cicero,  Marcus  Tullius,  philosophy  of,  xvii. 

moral  character  of,  xviii. 

divoi'ce  of  his  wife  by,  xix. 

character  of,  as  a  statesman,  xx. 

eclecticism  of,  xxiii. 

purpose  of,  in  writing  the  De  Officiis,  xxiv. 

motives  of,  in  writing  on  philosophy,  103. 

defence  of  Eoscius  by,  1 38. 
Cicero,  Marcus  Tullius,  the  younger,  life  of,  xxi. 

military  service  and  reputation  of,  132. 
Civic  compared  with  military  service,  45. 
Concealment,  no  mitigation  of  guilt,  190. 
Confidence,  how  won  and  merited,  120. 
Conversation,  graces  of,  82. 
rules  for,  83. 
Crassus,  Marcus,  wealth  and  cupidity  of,  15  n. 
Cynics,  the  indecency  of,  79. 

Damon  and  Phintias,  friendship  of,  194. 
Decency,  personal,  78. 

not  to  be  violated  even  in  the  service  of  the  state,  100. 
Deconim,  defined,  59. 

requisite  on  the  stage,  and  equally  in  life,  63. 
in  jests,  64. 
in  sport,  66. 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  as  a  philosopher  and  an  orator,  3. 
De  Offidis,  the,  when  written,  xxii. 
why  written,  xxiii. 
scope  of,  xxiv. 
divisions  of,  xxv. 
Dicaearchus,  quoted  on  the  evil  wrought  by  man  on  man,  112. 


Index.  251 

Dignity,  personal,  81. 

Diogenes  of  Babylon,  ethical  opinions  of,  198. 

Dionysius  of  Syracuse,  tyranny  and  abjectuess  of,  117. 

Diversities  of  manners  among  men,  67. 

Dolv^  malus,  defined,  204. 

how  dealt  with  by  the  laws,  205. 
Duties,  of  youth  and  age,  76. 

comparison  of,  96. 
Duty,  the  most  important  subject  in  philosophy,  3. 
contingent  or  perfect,  6. 

Easements,  law  of,  208. 
Eloquence  of  the  courts,  135. 
Enemies,  justice  toward,  32. 
Epicureanism,  ethics  of,  xv. 

virtues  annulled  by,  243. 
Ethical  systems  reducible  to  two,  xiii. 
Expediency,  relative,  of  different  objects,  167. 

when  a  factor  in  determining  the  right,  192. 

substituted  for  the  right  in  affairs  of  state,  195. 

Fabricius,  Caius,  good  faith  of,  toward  Pyrrhus,  221, 
Fame,  how  worthily  obtained,  123. 

Fear,  dangerous  to  him  who  makes  himself  the  object  of  fear,  116. 
Fides,  derivation  of,  14  n. 

Forgery  of  a  will,  connived  at  by  Crassus  and  Hortensius,  212. 
Fortune,  as  a  destructive  agent  compared  with  man,  113. 
Friendship,  how  made  both  close  and  worthy,  36. 
how  far  to  be  yielded  to,  195. 

Good  faith,  cases  of  its  observance  and  violation  by  the  Boman 

people,  221. 
Gratitude,  of  essential  obligation,  92. 
Gyges,  story  of,  with  its  moral,  190. 

account  of,  by  Herodotus,  190  n. 

Health,  care  of,  167. 

Honesty,  the  bond  of  human  society,  181. 


252  Index. 

Hostis,  whence  derived  and  how  used,  25  n.     ' 

House  suitable  for  a  distinguished  man  to  live  in,  86. 

Idiosyncrasies  to  be  preserved,  69. 

Immorality  contrary  to  nature,  189. 

Indebtedness  to  be  kept  within  due  limits,  165. 

Injustice,  in  what  consisting,  14. 

Integrity,  pecuniary,  the  habit  of  Home's  earlier  times,  159. 

Justice,  in  what  consisting,  13. 

comprising  all  the  requisites  to  fame,  127. 
the  queen  of  the  virtues,  135. 

Kindness  to  all  men,  rules  and  limits  of,  33. 

Kindred,  degrees  of,  among  men,  35. 

Kings,  why  first  chosen,  128. 

Knowledge,  the  acquisition  of,  the  first  division  of  the  right,  11. 

Labeo,  Quintus  Fabius,  fraud  of,   on  the  people  of  Nola  and 

Neapolis,  21. 
Laws,  origin  of,  129. 

Liberality,  as  compared  with  prodigality,  146. 
Love,  as  a  means  of  enduring  influence,  116. 

Magnanimity,  defined,  39. 

spurious  when  devoid  of  justice,  40. 
wherein  consisting,  42. 
Man,  how  distingiiished  from  beasts,  8. 

the  chief  source  of  benefit  or  injury  to  man,  108. 

dependent  on  society,  110. 

good  will  of,  how  secured,  113. 

a  good,  defined,  215. 
Manlius  Torquatus,  conduct  of,  to  his  father  and  his  son,  239. 
Marius,  Caius,  intrigue  of,  for  the  consulship,  216. 
Marius  Gratidianus,  meanness  of,  in  quest  of  popularity,  217. 
Money,  care  of,  167. 

Novae  Tahulae  in  Rome,  160  n. 

in  the  United  States  of  America,  161  n. 


Index.  253 

Oaths,  Cicero's  view  of,  234. 
Officium,  defined,  5  n. 
Order  of  time  and  place,  89. 

Palamedes,  myths  concerning,  229  n.- 
Panaetius,  treatise  of,  why  left  unfinished,  173. 

legitimacy  of  its  third  division  disputed,  175. 

only  a  seeming  discrepancy  between  the  expedient  and 
the  right  intended,  187. 
Parsimoniousness  to  be  avoided,  143. 
Patriotism,  a  foremost  obligation,  37. 
Peripatetics,  ethical  system  of,  xvi. 
Philosophers,  in  shunning  active  duty,  just  only  in  part,  17. 

services  of,  as  teachers,  98. 
Plato,  precepts  of,  for  the  government  of  the  state,  53. 
Poor,  the,  always  grateful  for  service,  147. 
Praetorian  edicts,  defined,  21  n. 
Prodigality,  to  please  the  people,  141. 
Professions,  respectable  and  ungenteel,  94. 
Promises,  when  not  to  be  kept,  19. 

to  an  enemy,  to  be  kept,  27. 

made  void  when  the  fulfilment  would  do  harm,  227. 
Pyrrhus,  magnanimity  of,  to  Roman  captives,  27. 
Pythius  of  Syracuse,  case  of  fraud  by,  202. 

Regulus,  magnanimity  of,  231. 

death  of,  various  traditions  concerning,  232  n. 
case  against,  233. 

course  of,  the  only  course  for  a  time  man,  234. 
case  of,  contrasted  with  that  of  others  sent  on  a  like 
mission,  241. 
Reproof,  how  to  be  administered,  85. 
Rhodian  wheat-merchant,  supposed  case  of,  198. 
Right,  the,  source  of,  in  nature,  8. 
intrinsic  excellence  of,  9. 
division  of,  10. 
Roman  people,  great  only  while  just,  119. 
Romulus,  criminal  in  killing  his  brother,  193. 


254  Index. 

Sale  of  houses,  fraud  in,  200. 

of  land,  law  concerning,  207. 

of  slaves,  law  concerning,  211. 
Self-judgment,  methods  of,  92. 
Slaves,  justice  to,  28. 
Social  War,  causes  of,  158  n. 
Sodality  of  the  whole  human  race,  184. 
Stoics,  ethical  system  of,  xv. 

doctrine  of,  as  to  contingent  duties,  177. 

as  to  the  perfect  right,  178. 
Sulla,  confiscation  of  property  by,  120. 
Sulpicius,  Caius,  eclipse  predicted  by,  12  n. 
Surrender  of  Roman  commanders  to  the  enemy,  cases  of,  237. 

Tax  on  property  to  be  avoided,  156. 
Tyrannicide,  a  right  and  a  duty,  180. 

Ulysses,  feigned  insanity  of,  229. 

War,  rights  of,  23. 

when  lawful,  50. 

how  to  be  conducted,  51. 
Wealth,  why  sought,  15. 
Withdrawal  from  civic  trusts,  when  justifiable,  44. 

Young  men,  how  to  become  favorably  known,  133. 


CICERO   DE    SENECTUTE 

(ON  OLD   AGE). 


TRANSLATED 


AN    INTRODUCTION    AND    NOTES. 


By  ANDREW  P.  PEABODY. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,   AND    COMPANY. 

1887. 


Copyright,  1884, 
Bt  Andrew  P.  Peabodt. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambbidoe. 


SYNOPSIS. 


§1.  Introduction,  and  dedication. 

2.  Old  age  a  part  of  the  order  of  nature. 

3.  Reasons  why  old  age  is  complained  of. 

4.  The  old  age  of  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus. 

5.  Examples  of  men  who  continued  their  labors  in  philos- 

ophy and  literature  to  a  late  old  age.  —  The  specific 
charges  brought  against  old  age. 

6.  It  is  alleged  that  old  age  incapacitates  men  from  the 

management    of  aflfairs.     The  contrary  shown  to  be 
true. 

7.  Memory  and  the  mental  faculties  are  not  necessarily  im- 

paired by  age  ;  but  may  be  preserved  in  working  order 
if  kept  in  exercise.     Proved  by  examples. 

8.  Old  men  need  not  be  disagreeable  to  the  young.     Nor 

need  they  be  unemployed  and  inert. 

9.  Failure  of  bodily  strength  in  old  age  not  to  be  regretted. 

10.  There  is  no  need  of  full  bodily  strength,  if  there  be  an 

increase  of  wisdom. 

11.  Failure  of  strength  and  of  mental  vigor  maybe  averted 

by  a  proper  regimen  of  body  and  mind. 

12.  It  is  complained  that  old  age  renders  one  less  susceptible 

of  sensual  pleasure  ;  but  this  is  to  be  regarded  as  an 
advantage  and  a  benefit. 

13.  Moderate  and  sober  conviviality  may  be  still  enjoyed  by 

those  advanced  in  years.     Cato's  own  example. 


iv  Synopsis. 

§14.  Examples  of  old  men  who  have  continued  to  find  delight 
in  learning,  literary  labor,  or  public  service. 

15.  The  pleasures  of  agriculture. 

16.  Examples  of  honored  and  happy  old  age  in  rural  life. 

Comforts  belonging  to  life  on  a  farm. 

17.  The  horticulture  of  Cyrus  the  younger. 

18.  Honorable  old  age  must  be  provided  for  by  a  virtuous 

youth. 

19.  Death  not  to  be  feared. 

20.  Death  easier  and  less  repugnant  to  nature  in  old  age 

than  in  youth. 
•21.  Reasons  for  believing  the  soul  to  be  immortal. 

22.  The  last  words  of   Cyrus   the  elder,  as  reported  by 

Xenophon. 

23.  Immortality  anticipated  with  longing. 


INTRODUCTION. 


After  the  death  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  before  the 
conflict  with  Antony,  Cicero  spent  two  years  in 
retirement,  principally  at  his  Tusculan  villa.  It 
was  the  most  fruitful  season  of  his  life,  as  regards 
philosophy.  To  this  period  (B.  C.  45  or  44)  the 
authorship  of  the  De  Senectute  is  commonly  as- 
signed. In  his  De  Divinatione,  in  enumerating  his 
philosophical  works,  he  speaks  of  this  treatise  on 
Old  Age  as  "  lately  thrown  in  among  them,"  ^  and 

1  Interjectus  est  etiam  nupcr.  The  chief  ground  for  doubt  as 
to  the  time  of  its  composition  is  that  Cicero  seems  to  speak  of 
this  book  as  "  thrown  in  among  "  the  six  Books  of  the  De  Repub- 
lica,  written  during  his  consulate  ;  while  he  sometimes  gives  a 
very  broad  sense  to  nupcr,  as  when  he  writes,  nvper,  id  est  paucis 
ante  seculis.  But  between  his  mention  of  the  De  Repuhlica  and 
that  of  tlie  De  Senectute  he  names  the  Consolatio,  which  was 
written  in  B.  C.  45,  after  the  death  of  his  daughter.  Interjectus, 
as  I  suppose,  refers,  not  to  the  date,  but  to  the  brevity  of  the 
treatise,  and  by  virtue  of  the  etiam  applies  equally  to  the  Conso- 
latio. ' '  While  I  have  written,  earlier  or  later,  the  longer  works 
that  I  have  named,  I  have  thrown  in  among  them  these  smaller 
treatises." 


vi  Introduction. 

as  meriting  a  place  in  the  list.  In  the  Be  Amicitia, 
dedicated  also  to  Atticus,  he  says :  "  In  the  Cato 
Major,  the  book  on  Old  Age  inscribed  to  you,  I  in- 
troduced the  aged  Cato  as  leading  in  the  discussion, 
because  no  person  seemed  better  fitted  to  speak  on 
the  subject  than  one  who  both  had  been  an  old  man 
so  long,  and  in  old  age  had  still  maintained  his  pre- 
eminence  In  reading  that  book  of  mine,  I 

am  sometimes  so  moved  that  it  seems  to  me  as  if, 

not  I,  but  Cato  were  talking I  then  wrote 

about  old  age,  as  an  old  man  to  an  old  man."  ^ 
Again,  Laelius,  who  is  the  chief  speaker  in  the 
J)e  Amicitia,  is  introduced  as  saying,  "  Old  age  is 
not  burdensome,  as  I  remember  hearing  Cato  say  in 
a  conversation  with  me  and  Scipio,  the  year  before 
he  died."  Cicero  repeatedly  refers  to  this  book  in 
his  Letters  to  Atticus.  In  the  stress  of  appre- 
hension about  Antony's  plans  and  movements  he 
writes  :  "  I  ought  to  read  very  often  the  Cato  Major 
which  I  sent  to  you ;  for  old  age  is  making  me  more 
bitter.  Everything  puts  me  out  of  temper."  At  a 
later  time  he  writes,  "  By  saying  that  0  Tite,  si  quid 
ego?  delights  you  more  and  more,  you  increase  my 
readiness  to  write."  And  again,  "  I  rejoice  that 
0  Tite^  is  doing  you  good." 

In  his  philosophical  and  ethical  writings,  Cicero 
lays  no  claim  to  originality ;  nor,  indeed,  did  the 

*  Cicero  and  Atticus  were  not  old  men  when  the  De  Eepublica 
was  written. 

*  The  first  words  of  the  Be  Senectute. 


Introduction.  vii 

Eomans  of  his  age,  or  even  of  a  much  later  time, 
regard  themes  of  this  kind  as  properly  their  own. 
Philosophy  was  an  exotic  which  it  was  glory  enough 
for  them  to  prize  and  cultivate.  This  fame  apper- 
tains pre-eminently  to  Cicero,  equally  for  his  com- 
prehensive scholarship,  for  his  keenness  of  critical 
discernment,  and  for  his  generous  eclecticism. 
Were  it  not  for  his  explicit  statement,  we  might 
not  learn  from  his  writings  to  what  sect  he  ac- 
counted himself  as  belonging.  Though  he  dis- 
claimed the  Stoic  school,  he  evidently  felt  a  strong 
gravitation  toward  it,  and  we  could  ask  for  no  bet- 
ter expositor  of  its  doctrines  than  we  find  in  him. 
Indeed,  I  can  discover  no  reason  for  his  adherence 
to  the  New  Academy,  except  the  liberty  which  it 
left  to  its  disciples  to  doubt  its  own  dogmas,  and  to 
acknowledge  a  certain  measure  of  probability  in  the 
dogmas  of  other  schools. 

In  this  treatise  Cicero  doubtless  borrowed  some- 
thing from  Aristo  of  Chios,  a  Stoic,  to  whose  work 
on  Old  Age  —  no  longer  extant  —  he  refers,  and  he 
quotes  largely  from  Xenophon  and  Plato.  At  the 
same  time,  thick-sown  tokens  of  profound  convic- 
tion and  deep  feeling  show  that  the  work,  if  not 
shaped  from  his  experience,  was  the  genuine  utter- 
ance of  his  aspirations.  What  had  been  his  life 
was  forever  closed.^  He  was  weary  and  sad.  His 
home  was  desolate,  and  could  never  again  be  other- 

1  Mihi  quidem  /Sc/Sfwrai,  —  "  Life  is  indeed  over  with  me." 
Letters  to  Atticus,  XIV.  21. 


viii  Introduction. 

wise.  His  daughter  —  dearer  to  liim  than  any- 
other  human  being  had  ever  been  —  had  recently 
died,  and  he  had  still  more  recently  repudiated  her 
young  step-mother  for  lack  of  sympathy  with  him 
in  his  sorrow.  His  only  son  was  giving  him  great 
soKcitude  and  grief  by  his  waywardness  and  profli- 
gacy. The  republic  to  which  he  had  consecrated 
his  warm  devotion  and  loyal  service  had  ceased  to 
be,  and  gave  faint  hope  of  renewed  vitality.  The 
Senate-house,  the  popular  assembly,  and  the  courts 
•were  closed  for  him,  and  might  never  be  reopened. 
He  had  courted  publicity,  and  had  delighted  in 
office,  leadership,  and  influence ;  but  there  was  now 
little  likelihood  that  any  party  that  might  come 
into  power  would  replace  him,  where  he  felt  that  he 
had  a  right  to  be,  among  the  guiding  and  controlling 
spirits  of  his  time. 

Old  age  with  him  is  just  beginning,  and  it  may 
last  long.  He  is  conscious  of  no  failure  in  bodUy 
or  mental  vigor,  —  in  the  capacity  of  work  or  of 
enjoyment.  Yet  in  all  that  had  contributed  to  his 
fame  and  his  happiness,  he  has  passed  the  culmi- 
nating point;  he  is  on  the  westward  declivity  of 
his  life-w^ay;  decrease  and  decline  are  inevitable. 
But  shall  he  succumb  to  the  inevitable  in  sullen 
despondency,  or  shall  he  explore  its  resources  for  a 
contented  and  enjoyable  life,  and  put  them  to  the 
test  of  experience  ?  He  chooses  the  latter  alterna- 
tive, and  it  is  not  as  the  mere  rehearsal  of  what  he 
has  read  in  Greek  books,  but  with  the  glow  of  fresh 


Introduction.  ix 

discovery,  and  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  is  mapping 
out  the  ground  of  which  he  means  to  take  posses- 
sion, that  he  describes  what  old  age  has  been,  what 
it  may  still  be,  and  what  he  yearns  to  make  it  for 
himself.  He  grows  strong,  cheerful,  and  hopeful  as 
he  writes,  and  in  coming  times  of  distress  and  peril 
he  unrolls  this  little  volume  for  his  own  support  and 
consolation. 

In  imitation  of  the  Platonic  pattern,  followed  by 
him  in  several  previous  treatises,  he  adopts  the  form 
of  dialogue  ;  but  after  the  interchange  of  a  few  sen- 
tences the  dialogue  becomes  monologue,  and  Cato 
talks  on  without  interruption  to  the  end.  Cato  is 
chosen  as  the  principal  interlocutor,  because  he  was 
the  typical  old  man  of  Eoman  history,  having  prob- 
ably retained  his  foremost  place  in  the  public  eye, 
and  his  oratorical  power  in  the  Senate  and  at  the 
bar,  to  a  later  age  than  any  other  person  on  record. 
In  his  part  in  this  dialogue  there  is  a  singular  com- 
mingling of  fact,  truth,  and  myth.  The  actual 
details  of  his  life  are  gracefully  interwreathed  with 
the  discussion,  and  the  incidental  notices  of  his 
elders  and  coevals  are  precisely  such  as  might  have 
fallen  from  his  lips  had  he  been  of  a  more  genial 
temperament.  There  is  dramatic  truth,  too,  in 
Cato's  senile  way  of  talking,  with  the  garrulity, 
repetition,  prolixity,  and  occasional  confusion  of 
names,  to  which  old  men  are  liable,  and  in  which 
Cicero  merges  his  own  precision  and  accuracy  in 
the  character  which  for  the  time  he  assumes.     But 


X  Introduction. 

as  regards  the  kindly,  the  aesthetic,  and  the  spiritual 
traits  that  make  this  work  so  very  charming,  its 
Gate  is  a  mythical  creation,  utterly  unlike  the 
coarse,  hard,  stern,  crabbed  ex-Censor,  who  was 
guiltless  equally  of  taste  and  of  sentiment. 

Cicero's  reasoning  in  this  treatise  is  based,  in 
great  part,  on  what  old  age  may  be,  rather  than  on 
what  it  generally  is  ;  and  yet  I  cannot  but  believe 
that,  were  its  cautions  heeded,  its  advice  followed, 
and  its  spirit  inbreathed,  the  number  of  those  who 
find  in  the  weight  of  many  years  no  heavy  burden 
would  be  largely  multiplied.  Yet  there  would  re- 
main not  a  few  cases  of  hopeless  inanity  and  help- 
less suffering.  We  are  here  told,  and  with  truth, 
that  it  is  often  the  follies  and  sins  of  early  life  that 
embitter  the  declining  years ;  yet  infirmity  some- 
times overtakes  lives  that  have  been  blameless  and 
exemplary,  nor  does  the  strictest  hygienic  regimen 
always  arrest  the  failure  of  body  and  of  mind. 
Undoubtedly  the  worst  thing  that  an  old  man  can 
do  is  to  cease  from  labor  and  to  cast  off  responsi- 
bility. The  powers  suffered  to  repose  lapse  from 
inaction  into  inability ;  while  they  will  in  most 
cases  continue  to  meet  the  drafts  made  upon 
them,  if  those  drafts  recur  with  wonted  frequency 
and  urgency.  Yet  there  is  always  danger  that,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Archbishop  in  Gil  Bias,  the  old 
man  who  insists  on  doing  his  full  tale  of  work  will 
be  mistaken  in  thinking  that  undiminished  quantity 
implies  unimpaired  quality. 


Introduction.  xi 

But  apart  from  the  continued  life-work,  Cicero 
indicates  resources  of  old  age  which  are  as  genuine 
and  as  precious  now  as  they  were  two  thousand 
years  ago.  While  the  zest  of  highly  seasoned 
convivial  enjoyment,  especially  of  such  as  abuts 
upon  the  disputed  border-ground  between  sobriety 
and  excess,  is  exhaled,  there  is  fully  as  much  to  be 
enjoyed  in  society  as  in  earlier  years.  Perhaps 
even  more ;  for  as  friends  grow  few,  those  that  re- 
main are  all  the  dearer,  and  in  the  company  of 
those  in  early  or  middle  life,  the  old  man  finds 
himself  an  eager  learner  as  to  the  rapidly  fleet- 
ing present,  and  imagines  himself  a  not  unwelcome 
teacher  as  to  what  deserves  commemoration  in  the 
obsolescent  and  outgrown  past.  The  tokens  of  def- 
erence and  honor  uniformly  rendered  in  society  to 
old  age  that  has  not  forfeited  its  title  to  respect  are 
a  source  of  pleasure.  They  are,  indeed,  in  great 
part,  conventional;  but  for  this  very  reason  they 
only  mean  and  express  the  more,  inasmuch  as  they 
betoken,  not  individual  feeling,  but  the  general  sen- 
timent of  regard  and  reverence  for  those  whose  long 
life-record  is  unblotted. 

Eural  pursuits  and  recreations,  also,  as  Cicero  says, 
are  of  incalculable  worth  to  the  aged.  The  love  of 
nature  increases  with  added  years.  In  the  outward 
universe  there  is  an  infinity  of  beauty  and  of  love- 
liness. The  Creator  englobes  his  own  attributes  in 
all  his  works.  What  we  get  from  them  is  finite, 
solely  because  the  taste  and  feeling  that  apprehend 


xii  Introduction. 

them  are  finite.  But  our  receptivity  grows  with 
the  growth  of  character,  and  our  revenue  of  delight 
from  field  and  garden,  orchard  and  forest,  brook  and 
stream,  sunset  clouds  and  star-gemmed  skies,  is  in 
full  proportion  to  our  receptivity,  and  is  never  so 
rich  and  so  gladdening  as  in  the  later  years  of  life. 
Cicero  evidently  felt  this.  There  is  hardly  any- 
thing in  all  his  works  so  beautiful  as  the  sections 
of  this  treatise  in  which  he  describes  the  growth  of 
the  corn  and  the  vine,  and  the  simple  joys  of  a 
country  home.  Indeed,  this  is  almost  a  unique 
passage.  The  literature  of  nature  is,  for  the  most 
part,  of  modern  birth.  The  classic  writers  give 
now  and  then,  in  a  single  phrase  or  sentence,  a 
vivid  word-picture  of  scenery  or  of  some  phenome- 
non in  the  outward  world ;  but  they  seldom  dwell 
on  such  themes.  Even  pastoral  poetry  sings  of  the 
flocks  and  their  keepers,  rather  than  of  their  mate- 
rial surroundings.  But  here  we  have  proof  that 
Cicero  had  grown  into  an  appreciation  of  the  wealth 
of  beauty  lying  around  his  villa,  far  beyond  what 
would  have  been  possible  for  him  when  he  sought 
its  quiet  as  a  refuge  from  the  turmoil  and  conflicts 
of  his  more  active  days. 

Cicero  is  right,  too,  in  regarding  the  presence 
of  old  men  in  the  state  as  essential  to  its  safety 
and  well-being.  True,  their  office  is,  for  the  most 
part,  that  of  brakemen;  but  on  a  roadway  never 
smooth,  and  passing  over  frequent  declivities,  this 
duty  often  demands  more  strength  and  skill  than  are 


Introduction.  xiii 

required  to  light  the  fires  and  run  the  engine.  It 
is  only  by  a  conservatism  both  wise  and  firm  that 
progress  can  be  made  continuous  and  reform  per- 
manent. Nor  is  there  any  imminent  probability 
that  old  age  will  furnish  a  larger  array  of  conserva- 
tive force  than  the  world  needs.  If  in  the  advance- 
ment of  physical  and  moral  hygiene  the  time  should 
come  when  the  hoary  head  shall  be  in  due  season 
the  normal  crown  of  every  man,  and,  according 
to  the  Hebrew  hyperbole,  "the  child  shall  die  an 
hundred  years  old,"  society  will  have  attained  a 
summit-level  at  which  there  will  be  need  neither  of 
engineers  nor  of  brakemen. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  well  for  mankind  that  old  men 
are  so  few.  Were  they  more  numerous,  and  at  the 
same  time  worthy  to  retain  the  confidence  of  their 
fellow-men,  the  young  would  lack  the  exercise  and 
discipline  of  their  powers  which  alone  could  fit 
them  for  an  honorable  and  useful  old  age.  Death 
oils  all  the  wheels  of  life.  It  is  always  throwing 
heavy  responsibility  on  those  who  do  not  seek  it, 
but  accept  it  as  a  necessity,  and  gird  themselves  to 
bear  it  faithfully  and  nobly.  As  in  a  well-trained 
army  the  reserved  forces  rush  in  to  fill  the  places  of 
the  fallen,  so  in  the  battle  of  life  the  ranks  of  the 
dying  are  recruited  by  those  who  are  biding  their 
time.  Death  is  the  ripener  of  manly  force  and 
efficient  virtue,  which  would  droop  under  the  dense 
shadow  of  thoroughly  matured  and  still  active  ser- 
vice, but  are  stimulated  into  full  vitality  and  work- 


xiv  Introduction. 

ing  power  as  the  spaces  around  them  are  made  void. 
The  very  bereavements  which  are  most  dreaded  and 
deplored  as  utterly  irreparable,  are  the  most  certain 
to  be  repaired,  and  often  by  those  who  before  neither 
knew  themselves  nor  were  known  to  be  capable  of 
such  momentous  charge  and  duty.  Elijah  wears  his 
mantle  tiU  he  goes  to  heaven,  and  there  is  no  other 
on  earth  like  it ;  but  when  he  ascends  he  drops  the 
mantle,  and  his  spirit  enters  into  the  man  who  picks 
it  up.  Death  is,  indeed,  looked  upon  as  a  calamity 
by  many  whose  faith  should  have  taught  them  better. 
The  death  which  closes  an  undevout  and  worthless 
life  may  well  be  dreaded ;  yet  even  in  such  a  case 
continued  life  is  perhaps  to  be  still  more  dreaded. 
But  in  the  order  designed  by  Infinite  Wisdom,  and 
destined  to  progressive  and  ultimate  establishment, 
death  bears  a  supremely  beneficent  part,  and  is  an 
event  only  to  be  welcomed  in  its  appointed  season 
by  him  who  has  brought  his  own  life  into  conform- 
ity with  the  Divine  order. 

But  death  can  be  regarded  with  complacency 
only  when  it  is  looked  upon,  —  as  Cicero  represents 
it, — as  not  an  end,  but  a  way, — as  not  a  ceasing  to 
live,  but  a  beginning  to  live.  The  jubilant  strains 
in  which  the  assurance  of  immortality  is  here 
voiced  are  hardly  surpassed  in  grandeur  by  St. 
Paul's  words  of  triumph  when  the  crown  of  mar- 
tyrdom hung  close  within  his  reach.  Yet  there  is 
a  difference.  Cicero's  faith  transcended,  and  in 
great  part  created,  his  reasons  for  it,  and  it  failed 


Introduction.  xv 

him  in  the  very  crises  in  which  he  most  needed  it ; 
St.  Paul  "  knew  in  whom  he  had  believed,"  and  his 
faith  was  sightlike  when  death  seemed  nearest.  It 
is  of  no  little  worth  to  us  that  Socrates  and  Plato, 
Cicero  and  Plutarch,  felt  so  intensely  the  pulse-beat 
of  the  undying  life  within.  Of  inestimably  greater 
evidential  value  is  it,  that  he  whose  peerless  beauty 
of  holiness  made  his  humanity  divine  ever  spoke 
of  the  eternal  life  as  the  one  reality  of  human  being. 
But  there  are  for  us  emergencies  of  sore  need  and 
of  heavy  trial,  times  when  we  go  down  to  the  mar- 
gin of  the  death-river  with  those  dear  to  us  as  our 
own  souls,  critical  moments  when  we  ourselves  are 
passing  under  the  shadow  of  death ;  and  at  such 
seasons  we  can  rest  on  no  reasoning,  we  can  be  sat- 
isfied with  no  unbuttressed  testimony ;  but  our  faith 
can  repose  in  undoubting  security  on  the  broken 
sepulchre,  on  the  risen  Saviour,  on  those  words 
spoken  for  all  time,  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live 
also." 


xvi  Introduction. 


ATTICUS. 

Titus  Pomponius,  as  lie  was  originally  named,  on 
his  adoption  by  his  uncle  prefixed  that  uncle's  name, 
Quintus  Caecilius,  to  his  own,  and  subsequently,  in 
consequence  of  his  long  residence  in  Athens,  as- 
sumed, or  received  and  accepted,  the  surname  of 
Atticus,  by  which  he  is  known  in  history.  He  was 
born  in  Eome,  109  B.  C,  and  was  Cicero's  senior 
by  three  years.  He  belonged  to  an  old  Equestrian 
family,  not  eminent,  but  of  high  respectability. 
His  father  was  a  man  of  culture  and  of  literary 
tastes,  and  gave  his  son  a  liberal  education.  The 
civil  war  between  the  factions  of  Marius  and  Sulla 
broke  out  in  the  son's  early  manhood,  and  he  hardly 
escaped  being  a  victim  of  Sulla's  proscription.  He 
determined  to  insure  safety  by  voluntary  exile,  and, 
his  father  being  dead,  he  betook  himself  with  the 
movable  portion  of  his  ample  patrimony  to  Athens, 
where  he  lived  for  twenty  years. 

He  called  himself  an  Epicurean,  and,  though  not 
deeply  versed  in  philosophy,  he  probably  realized 
more  nearly  than  any  man  whose  history  we  know 
the  ethical  ideal  of  Epicurus  himself.  Supremely, 
but  judiciously  selfish;  covetous  of  pleasure,  yet 
with  an  aesthetic  sense  which  found  pleasure  only 
in  things  decent,  tasteful,  and  becoming ;  a  persist- 


Introduction.  xvii 

ent  and  loyal  friend,  so  far  as  friendship  demanded 
neither  conflict  nor  sacrifice ;  sedulously  avoiding 
pain,  annoyance,  and  trouble ;  plucking  roses  all 
aloug  his  lifeway  so  carefully  as  never  to  incur  a 
thorn-prick,  —  he  must  have  derived  as  large  a 
revenue  of  enjoyment  from  his  seventy-seven  years 
in  this  world  as  ever  accrued  to  any  man  whose 
aims  were  all  self-centred  and  self-terminated. 

He  was  fond  of  money,  frugal  while  elegant  in 
his  mode  of  living,  with  no  vices  so  far  as  we  know, 
certainly  with  no  costly  vices.  He  was  married 
only  late  in  life,  and  had  but  one  child  to  provide 
for.  His  imcle  —  a  usurer  of  ignoble  reputation  — 
left  him  an  estate  five  times  as  large  as  that  re- 
ceived from  his  father.  This  he  increased  by  the 
remunerative  purchase  of  extensive  tracts  of  land  in 
Epeirus  and  elsewhere,  by  loans  to  individuals,  cor- 
porations, and  cities,  by  traffic  in  slaves  and  gladi- 
ators, and,  as  a  publisher,  by  multiplying,  for  high 
prices,  through  the  numerous  copyists  whom  he 
owned,  transcripts  of  Cicero's  works  and  of  other 
writings  of  friends  who  sought  to  reach  the  public 
by  his  agency.  At  the  same  time,  he  made  a  judi- 
cious investment  of  charities  far  within  liis  income, 
in  loans  without  interest  and  public  benefactions  to 
the  city  of  Athens,  in  loans  and  gifts  to  those  within 
the  circle  of  his  intimacy,  and  in  gratuities  to  per- 
sons straitened  or  suffering  through  stress  of  political 
convulsions  and  perils. 

He  belonged,  by  sympathy  and  in  his  private 
b 


xviii  Introduction. 

correspondence,  to  the  ^Marian,  and  then  to  the 
Pompeian  party,  and  had  a  strong  antipathy  to  the 
course  and  policy  of  Julius  Caesar,  his  race  and 
kind;  but  he  publicly  identified  himself  with  no 
party,  refrained  from  political  activity  of  every  sort, 
and  refused  contributions  in  aid  even  of  movements 
that  had  his  full  approval  and  liis  best  wishes.  He 
was  always  ready  to  relieve  the  distressed  members 
of  both  and  of  all  parties.  He  held  friendly  rela- 
tions equally  with  Julius  Caesar  and  Pompey, 
Cassius  and  Antony,  Brutus  and  Caesar  Augustus. 

He  had  the  most  winning  and  attractive  man- 
ners, a  voice  of  rare  sweetness  and  melody,  and  con- 
versational powers  unsurpassed,  if  equalled,  by  any 
man  of  his  time.  He  was  hospitable,  yet  without 
extravagance  or  ostentation,  and  his  entertainments, 
first  in  Athens,  and  then  in  Rome,  were  remark- 
able as  reunions  of  all  that  there  was  of  learning, 
genius,  wit,  and  grace.  He  loved  to  maintain  peace- 
ful and  harmonious  relations  among  his  wonted 
guests,  and  was  persevering  in  his  endeavors  to 
reconcile  differences,  soothe  jealousies,  and  prevent 
rivals  from  becoming  enemies.  It  was  wholly  due 
to  tlieir  common  friend  and  host  that  Cicero  and 
Hortensius,  as  alike  candidates  for  the  palm  of  elo- 
quence, preserved  at  least  the  show  of  friendship. 

Atticus  was  also  a  man  of  large  and  varied 
learning,  was  equally  versed  in  Greek  and  in  Eo- 
man  literature,  and  used  either  tongue  in  speech 
and  in  writing  as  if  he  had  never  known  any  other. 


Introduction.  xix 

He  was  a  thorough  grammarian  and  a  careful  critic. 
His  friends  were  in  the  habit  of  sending  their  works 
to  him  for  a  last  revision,  and  it  is  by  no  means 
improbable  that  some  of  the  delicate  touches  of 
Cicero's  rhetoric  may  be  due  to  his  consummate 
taste  and  skill.  He  was  himself  an  author,  and 
wrote  among  other  things  an  epitome  of  Eoman 
history  from  the  earliest  time  to  his  own.  He  was 
a  ready  and  fluent  letter-writer.  But  none  of  his 
writings  are  extant,  except  such  few  scraps  of  his 
epistles  as  are  preserved  in  Cicero's  answers  to 
them. 

The  friendship  between  Cicero  and  Atticus  began 
in  their  early  boyhood.  When  Cicero  first  went  to 
Athens  —  shortly  after  his  defence  of  Eoscius,  and 
not  improbably  to  escape  the  vengeance  of  Sulla  — 
he  found  Atticus  already  established  there,  and  for 
six  months  they,  with  Cicero's  brother  Quintus,  who 
married  the  sister  of  Atticus,  were  constantly  asso- 
ciated in  study  and  in  recreation.  From  that  time 
Atticus  was  Cicero's  closest  and  dearest  friend,  en- 
tering with  the  most  vivid  interest  into  all  his  plans 
and  pursuits,  lending  him  money,  advising  him  in 
business,  taking  care  of  his  property  during  his 
absences,  and  rendering  counsel  and  aid  in  connec- 
tion with  the  successive  divorces  of  Terentia  and 
Publilia.  The  correspondence  between  them  now 
extant  commenced  only  three  years  before  Atticus 
returned  to  Eome,  though  it  is  hardly  possible  that 
they  should  not  have  exchanged  letters  previously. 


XX  Introduction. 

On  Cicero's  side  the  epistles  are  of  the  most  famil- 
iar character,  giving  us  a  minute  narrative  of  inci- 
dent, occupation,  thought,  and  sentiment,  day  by 
day,  and  furnishing  more  ample  and  more  authentic 
materials  for  his  biography  than  are  derived  from 
all  other  sources.  They  include  equally  such  refer- 
ences to  the  details  of  the  life  of  Atticus,  and  to 
all  his  peculiarities  of  habit,  opinion,  and  taste,  that 
we  feel  hardly  less  intimately  acquainted  with  him 
than  with  his  illustrious  correspondent.  He  be- 
came to  Cicero  as  another  self,  an  admirer  of  his 
genius,  a  participant  in  all  his  ambitions,  and  in 
many  matters  of  practical  life  by  far  the  wiser  of 
the  two.  That  he  knew  the  worth,  prized  the  priv- 
ilege, and  undoubtedly  anticipated  the  enduring 
fame  of  such  a  friendship,  is  the  best  title  that  re-, 
mains  on  record  to  the  place  which  he  would  have 
claimed  in  the  list  of  genuine  philosophers. 


Introduction*  xxi 


CATO. 

Marcus  Porcius  Cato  Censorius  was  born  at 
Tusculum  in  Latium,  probably  B.  C.  234,  and  died 
at  the  age  of  at  least  eighty-five  years.  Livy  and 
Plutarch  both  say  that  he  passed  his  ninetieth  year. 
He  was  of  plebeian  birth,  and  the  founder  of  his 
own  illustrious  family.  Porcius  was  the  family 
name,  and  Cato  was  a  name  either  given  to  him  in 
childhood  with  foresight  of  his  shrewdness  and  prac- 
tical wisdom,  or  else  bestowed  on  him  and  accepted 
by  him  after  his  peculiar  traits  of  character  were 
well  known  and  distinctly  recognized.  It  denotes 
wisdom  of  an  entirely  terrestrial,  and  even  feline 
type,  and  is  on  the  whole  more  appropriate  to  him 
than  the  surname  Sapiens,  which  attached  itself  to 
him  in  his  later  years.  He  had  great  virtues,  but 
defects  as  great.  In  not  one  of  the  beatitudes  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  could  he  have  claimed  a  part, 
nor  would  he  have  deigned  to  claim  it,  unless,  in 
the  almost  numberless  suits  at  law  in  which  he  was 
his  own  advocate,  he  might  have  regarded  himself 
as  "  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake."  He  was 
rigidly  truthful,  sternly  and  ferociously  upright,  in- 
tensely courageous,  and  devotedly  patriotic,  —  kind, 
too,  to  his  wives  and  children.  But  he  was  mean 
and  miserly,  an  exacting  and  tyrannical  master,  an 


xxii  Introduction. 

implacable  enemy,  and  his  lower  appetites  were  not 
governed  by  principle,  but  kept  in  check  only  so  far 
as  prudence  required.  He  probably  seemed  a  better 
man  in  Cicero's  time  than  in  his  own,  and  this  for 
two  reasons;  namely,  that  his  peculiar  virtues  had 
almost  died  out  of  the  Eoman  commonwealth,  and 
that,  when  a  man  transmits  to  posterity  any  valid 
title  to  fame,  time  enhances  his  merits  and  extenu- 
ates his  faults,  so  that  the  generation  which  "  builds 
the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets  "  always  idealizes  the 
busts  that  surmount  them. 

As  regards  versatility  of  endowment,  number  and 
diversity  of  official  trusts,  ability  and  faithfulness  as 
a  servant  of  the  public,  and  influence  —  unspent  by 
death  —  over  the  Senate  and  the  people,  Cato  had 
no  equal  in  the  history  of  Rome.  The  impress  of 
his  life  and  character  on  the  ages  that  looked  back 
on  his  career  from  the  interval  of  centuries,  may 
best  be  seen  from  Livy's  panegyric,  of  M'hich  we 
give  a  literal  translation.  After  enumerating  the 
long  list  of  competitors  for  the  office  of  Censor,  he 
says  :  — 

"  Marcus  Porcius  [Cato]  stood  in  the  canvass  far  be- 
fore all  the  patricians  and  plebeians  of  the  most  noble 
families.  In  this  man  there  was  so  great  force  of  mind 
and  genius,  that,  whatever  might  have  been  his  position 
by  birth,  he  seemed  destined  to  be  the  artificer  of  his 
own  fortune.  He  lacked  no  skill  in  the  management 
of  either  private  or  public  interests.  He  was  equally 
versed  in  the  affairs  of  the  city  and  of  the  country. 


Introduction.  xxiii 

Some  have  attained  the  highest  honors  by  virtue  of 
legal  science,  some  by  eloquence,  some  by  military 
fame  ;  he  had  a  genius  so  capable  of  excelling  in  all, 
that  whatever  he  had  in  hand  you  would  say  that  he 
was  expressly  born  for  it.  In  war  he  was  the  bravest 
of  soldiers,  renowned  in  many  signal  conflicts ;  after  he 
rose  to  high  honors,  a  consummate  general ;  in  peace,  if 
you  asked  legal  advice,  the  wisest  of  counsellors ;  if  you 
had  a  cause  to  be  argued,  the  most  eloquent  of  advo- 
cates. Nor  was  he  one  whose  fame  as  an  orator,  flour- 
ishing while  he  lived,  left  no  memorial  of  itself  behind 
him.  His  eloquence  still  lives,  consecrated  by  writings 
of  every  description.  There  are  extant  many  of  his 
speeches  for  himself,  and  for  others,  and  against  others  ; 
for  he  harassed  his  opponents  equally  by  accusing  them 
and  by  pleading  his  own  cause.  An  excessive  number 
of  enmities  were  cherished  against  him,  and  cherished 
by  him ;  nor  was  it  easy  to  say  whether  the  nobles  were 
the  more  earnest  to  put  him  down,  or  he  to  annoy  them. 
He  was,  undoubtedly,  of  a  harsh  temper,  and  of  a  bit- 
ter and  an  inordinately  free  tongue,  but  of  a  soul 
unconquered  by  sensual  appetites,  of  rigid  integrity,  a 
despiser  of  adulation  and  of  bribes.  In  frugal  living, 
in  endurance  of  labor  and  of  danger,  he  was  of  an  iron 
constitution  of  body  and  mind ;  nor  could  old  age, 
which  enfeebles  all  things,  break  him.  In  his  eighty- 
sixth  year  he  had  a  case  in  court,  pleaded  his  own  cause, 
and  continued  to  write,  and  in  his  ninetieth  year  he 
brought  Serving  Galba  to  trial  before  the  people." 

Cato  inherited  a  small  farm  in  the  Sabine  terri- 
tory, vehere  he  spent  his  boyhood  and  such  portions 


XXIV 


Introduction. 


of  his  subsequent  life  as  were  free  from  public  ser- 
vice. Here  he  lived  with  the  utmost  simplicity, 
worked  on  his  farm,  and  associated  on  familiar 
terms  with  his  rustic  neighbors.  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  he  made  his  first  campaign  as  a  soldier, 
and  three  years  later  reached  the  dignity  of  a  mili- 
tary Tribune  under  Fabius  Maximus,  whose  friend- 
ship he  enjoyed.  B.  C.  205,  he  went  to  Sicily  as 
military  Quaestor  under  the  elder  Africanus.  In  due 
time  he  became  Aedile,  and  the  next  year  Praetorj 
having  Sardinia  for  his  province,  with  a  considera- 
ble military  command.  In  this  office  lie  renounced 
the  wonted  pomp  of  his  predecessors,  walked  on  his 
circuits,  cut  down  to  the  lowest  point  all  public 
expenses,  waged  war  against  usury,  and  visited 
usurers  with  condign  punishment.  Chosen  Consul 
B.  C.  195,  he  sustained  during  his  term  of  office  the 
only  signal  defeat  in  his  whole  career.  Twenty 
years  previously,  in  the  stress  of  the  Punic  war,  a 
severe  sumptuary  law  had  been  passed,  limiting  the 
amount  of  gold  which  women  might  possess,  for- 
bidding them  to  wear  many-colored  garments,  and 
prohibiting  their  use  of  carriages  for  short  distances 
in  the  city.  The  women  absolutely  mobbed  the 
Senators,  imploring  the  repeal  of  restrictions  no 
longer  needed.  Cato  opposed  them  to  the  last; 
but  they  by  importunity  won  the  day,  and  cele- 
brated their  victory  by  a  procession,  in  M'hich  they 
made  ample  show  of  the  late-proscribed  finery.  As 
soon  as  this  domestic  war  was  over,  Cato  set  sail  for 


Introduction.  xxv 

his  allotted  province,  Hither  Spain  (Hispania  Cite- 
rior).  Here  there  were  rebel  and  recalcitrant  tribes 
to  be  reduced  to  submission,  and  Cato  in  the  con- 
duct of  this  campaign  displayed  at  once  the  highest 
military  ability  and  the  most  wanton  and  savage 
cruelty.  He  was  rewarded  with  a  triumph ;  but 
returned  to  encounter  the  enmity  of  the  elder 
Scipio  African  us,  toward  whom  he  had  previously 
stood  in  unfriendly  relations.  He  successfully  de- 
fended himself  against  the  charges  urged  against 
him,  which  seem  to  have  related,  in  part  at  least, 
to  the  pecuniary  administration  of  his  province,  in 
which  Cato  was  able,  by  producing  his  accounts,  to 
show  himself,  as  in  these  matters  he  always  was, 
not  only  above  suspicion,  but  minutely  exact,  and  as 
parsimonious  in  public  office  as  he  was  in  his  own 
private  affairs.  He  subsequently  served  under 
Glabrio,  probably  as  Legatus,  or  lieutenant-general, 
in  the  war  with  Antiochus  the  Great,  and  the  bat- 
tle of  Thermopylae,  which  crippled  Antiochus,  was 
brought  to  a  successful  issue  confessedly  by  the 
prowess,  energy,  and  strategic  skill  of  Cato, 

B.  C.  184,  Cato  was  chosen  Censor,  and  applied 
himself  at  once  with  characteristic  vigor  and  acri- 
mony to  the  duties  of  his  office.  He  made  the 
most  stringent  provisions  against  luxur3\  He  put 
the  aqueducts,  sewers,  and  other  public  works  in 
order,  and  arrested  all  the  modes  in  which  public 
property  had  been  perverted  to  private  uses,  such 
as  the  drawing  off  of  water  from  the  reservoirs  for 


xxvi  Introduction. 

the  special  supply  of  houses  and  gardens.  He 
brought  farmers  of  the  revenue  and  contractors  of 
every  class  to  strict  account,  and  regulated  all  con- 
tracts by  his  own  perhaps  too  low  estimate  of  the 
actual  worth  of  the  work  done  or  the  service  ren- 
dered. He  degraded  from  the  Senate  and  from 
their  Equestrian  privileges  a  very  considerable  num- 
ber of  men  of  previously  high  standing,  most  of  them 
for  grave  and  sufficient  reasons, —  some,  it  must  be 
confessed,  on  very  frivolous  pretexts.  He  laid  up 
by  his  censorial  career  a  stock  of  enmities  which 
lasted  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  during  which  he 
held  no  public  office,  but  appeared  constantly  in  the 
courts,  in  the  Senate,  and  before  the  people,  retain- 
ing to  the  last  his  clearness  and  vigor  of  intellect, 
and  much  of  his  oratorical  power.  He  was  during 
his  lifetime  prosecuted  before  the  tribunals  forty- 
four  times,  and  failed  of  successful  defence  but 
once.  He  was  still  oftener  a  public  accuser,  and 
generally  procured  the  conviction  of  the  defendant. 
In  the  case  of  Servius  Galba,  recorded  by  Livy  as 
his  last,  he  lost  the  cause,  though  a  righteous  one, 
by  the  wonted  resource  of  an  appeal  by  weeping 
children  to  the  pity  of  the  judges. 

Cato,  though  not  a  profligate  or  a  sot,  was  not 
consistently  pure  nor  uniformly  temperate.  He 
dealt  with  his  slaves  as  with  cattle,  treating  them 
as  merchantable  chattels,  punishing  them  with 
wanton  severity,  and  sometimes  condemning  them 
to  death  for  trivial  offences.     His  whole  life  must 


Introduction.  xxvii 

have  been  coarse,  in  many  aspects  even  brutal,  and 
the  aesthetic  faculty  seems  to  have  been  entirely 
wanting  in  him. 

Yet  his  literary  culture  must  have  been  of  a  high 
order.  He  learned  Greek  in  his  old  age,  after  de- 
spising the  language  and  its  writers  during  the 
whole  of  his  earlier  life.  He  was  a  friend  and 
patron  of  the  poet  Ennius,  and  brought  him  to 
Eome,  though  manifestly  without  any  generous 
provision  for  his  subsistence ;  for  Ennius  led  in 
Eome  as  poor  and  straitened  a  life  as  he  could 
have  left  in  Sardinia,  where  Cato  found  him.  Of 
Cato's  orations,  letters,  and  great  historical  work,  we 
have  only  fragments  extant.  His  De  Re  Rustica 
exists,  probably  unchanged  in  substance,  though 
modernized  in  form.  It  is  not  so  nmch  a  treatise 
as  a  miscellaneous  compend  of  materials  relating  to 
agriculture  and  rural  affairs,  and  it  undoubtedly 
presents  the  most  genuine  picture  that  has  been 
preserved  to  our  time  of  rustic  life  in  Italy  two 
thousand  years  ago. 


xxviii  Introduction. 


LAELIUS. 

Caius  Laelius  Sapiens,  of  a  distinguished  patri- 
cian family,  was  born  in  Rome,  B.  C.  186.  His 
surname  was  given  to  hira  for  his  prudence  in  re- 
tracting certain  agrarian  measures  in  which  he 
would  have  shared  with  the  Gracchi  the  intensest 
enmity  of  the  whole  patrician  body.  He  was  va- 
cillating in  his  political  opinions  and  proclivities, 
feeling  strong  sympathy  with  the  popular  cause,  yet 
unwilling  to  forfeit  the  friendship  and  esteem  of  his 
own  native  caste.  Though  he  was  not  a  great  man, 
he  filled  reputably  several  high  public  trusts,  both 
civil  and  military,  and  was  regarded  as  the  most 
learned  and  acute  of  jurists  in  augural  law,  which 
was  largely  made  up  of  authority  and  precedent, 
and  abounded  in  intricacies  and  subtilties,  while 
yet  it  constantly  had  grave  complications  with  the 
most  important  affairs  of  state. 

He  was  a  man  of  large  and  varied  erudition,  was 
well  versed  in  philosophy,  and  as  a  pupil  of  Dioge- 
nes of  Babylon,  and  tlien  of  Panaetius,  was  among 
the  earliest  Eoman  disciples  of  the  Stoic  school. 

His  social  qualities  won  for  him  many  and  warm 
friends.  He  had  an  even  temper,  genial  manners, 
fine  conversational  powers,  ready  wit  and  affluent 
humor.     In  the  De  Senectute  he  is  fitly  associated 


Introduction.  xxix 

with  the  younger  Scipio  Africanus,  with  whom  he 
lived  in  the  closest  intimacy,  as  his  father  had  with 
the  elder  Africanus.  Thoroughly  amiable  in  his 
domestic  relations,  he  seems  to  have  almost  antici- 
pated the  home  life  of  modern  Cliristendom,  and 
we  have  accounts  of  games  not  unlike  our  blind- 
man's-buff,  in  which  he  and  Scipio  dropped  all 
dignity  and  became  boys  again.  Many  of  his  face- 
tious sayings  lingered  long  in  the  popular  memory, 
and  some  still  survive.  The  best  of  them  is  his 
reply  to  an  impertinent  man,  who  reproached  him 
with  not  being  worthy  of  his  ancestors,  —  "  But  you 
are  worthy  of  yours." 

Of  his  writings  —  chiefly  orations  —  nothing  re- 
mains except  a  few  titles.  He  was  regarded  as 
singularly  smooth  and  elegant  in  his  style  ;  but  the 
Latin  tongue  was  by  no  means  in  his  day  the  subtle 
and  flexible  organ  of  thought  which  Cicero  both 
found  and  made  it,  and  some  of  the  later  gramma- 
rians resorted  to  Laelius  for  specimens  of  archaic 
words  and  idioms. 


XXX  Introduction. 


SCIPIO. 

Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  Aemilianiis  Africanus 
Minor  was  a  son  of  Lucius  Aemilius  Paullus,  and 
was  adopted  by  his  cousin,  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio 
Africanus,  the  son  of  the  elder  Africanus.  He  was 
born  in  the  same  year  with  Laelius.  He  has  his 
place  in  history  as  the  most  able  and  successful 
military  commander  of  his  age.  He  first  gained 
celebrity  in  Spain  as  military  Tribune  under  Lucius 
Lucullus,  whom  he  eclipsed  in  fame,  equally  as  to 
courage,  integrity,  and  humanity.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  third  Punic  war  he  still  served  as  Tribune ; 
but  by  his  valor  and  skill  he  so  won  the  suffrages 
of  the  army  and  the  confidence  of  the  people,  that 
he  was  made  Consul  before  the  legal  age,  and  was 
thus  placed  in  supreme  command.  The  war,  under 
his  energetic  conduct,  issued  in  the  capture  and 
destruction  of  Carthage.  He  was  subsequently 
chosen  Consul  a  second  time,  with  a  view  to  his 
service  as  commander  in  Spain,  where  the  war  had 
been  prolonged  for  many  years,  and  with  repeated 
disasters  for  the  Eoman  army.  Scipio  laid  siege  to 
Numantia,  and,  after  the  most  obstinate  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  Spaniards,  took  the  city,  levelled 
it  with  the  ground,  reserved  fifty  of  its  inhabitants 
to  grace  his  triumph,  and  sold  the  rest  of  them  as 
slaves. 


Introduction.  xxxi 

He  was  Censor  for  a  year  in  the  interval  between 
his  two  consulships,  and  in  that  office  he  chose  Cato 
for  his  model,  employed  the  utmost  severity  in  the 
repression  of  extravagance,  luxury,  and  licentious- 
ness, and  made  some  strong  and  bitter  enemies. 
He  was  always  and  consistently  an  aristocrat,  and 
an  opposer  of  all  agrarian  measures,  and  of  the  self- 
constituted  leaders  of  the  popular  or  plebeian  party  ; 
and  as  his  death  occurred  suddenly  and  mysteri- 
ously, it  was  supposed  that  he  had  been  murdered 
by  some  one  of  his  political  antagonists,  probably 
by  Papirius  Carbo,  who  had  been  unsparing  in 
denunciations  and  invectives  against  him  as  the 
enemy  of  the  Eoman  people. 

Scipio  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and  accom- 
plished men  of  his  age,  a  friend  of  Polybius  and 
Panaetius,  a  patron  of  the  poets  Lucilius  and  Ter- 
ence, and,  it  was  said, — probably  on  no  sufficient 
evidence,  —  a  collaborator  with  Terence,  or  at  least 
a  reviser  of  some  of  his  comedies. 


In  my  translation  I  have  uniformly  followed  the 
text  of  Otto.  Few  of  the  various  readings  are  of 
any  importance ;  and  where  there  is  a  difference 
worthy  of  notice,  I  find  that,  so  far  as  I  can  remem- 
ber without  an  exception,  Lahmeyer  and  Sommer- 
brodt,  whose  editions  I  have  constantly  consulted, 
coincide  with  Otto. 


CICERO  DE   SENECTUTE. 


I.     "  Titus,  if  I  can  lift  or  ease  the  care 

That  ceaseless  burns  and  rankles  in  your  breast, 
What  guerdon  shaU  be  mine  ? " 

For  I  may  be  permitted  to  address  you,  Atticus,  in 
the  very  verses  in  which  Flamininus  ^  is  addressed 
by 

"  That  man  so  rich  in  probity,  not  gold,"  ^ 

1  Titus  Quintius  Flamininus,  who  was  a  coeval  of  Ennius.  His 
was  an  eminently  successful  career.  The  "care"  pressing  so  con- 
stantly upon  him  may  have  been  that  of  the  war  with  Philip  of 
Macedonia,  in  which  he  showed  eminent  ability  as  a  commander 
and  a  strategist,  and  which  he  closed  by  a  peace  of  which  he 
seems  to  have  dictated  the  terms.  But  it  more  probably  may 
have  been  a  strong  and  lasting  sense  of  the  disgrace  brought  upon 
the  family  by  the  flagitious  conduct  of  his  brother  Lucius  Quin- 
tius Flamininus,  who  was  ignominiously  expelled  from  the  Senate, 
by  Cato  the  Elder,  during  his  Censorship. 

^  Ennius,  who  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  Rome,  and 
maintained  himself  as  a  preceptor  to  youths  of  patiician  families. 
He  was  bom  in  a  small  village  near  Brundusium,  and  was  in- 
duced to  come  to  Rome  by  Cato  the  Elder.  He  was  held  in  the 
highest  esteem,  affection,  and  reverence  by  the  best  men  of  liis 
time. 

I 


2  Cicero  de  Scncctute. 

althoiigh  I  feel  assured  that  it  is  by  no  means  true, 
as  of  Flamininus,  that 

"  You,  Titus,  pass  but  anxious  nights  and  days  "  ; 

for  I  know  the  moderation  and  evenness  of  your 
temperament,  and  am  aware  that  you  brought  away 
from  Athens,  not  only  your  surname,  but  also  liberal 
culture  and  practical  wisdom.  Yet  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  you  are  sometimes  seriously  disturbed 
by  the  same  things^  that  weigh  heavily  on  my 
mind,  under  wliich  such  comfort  as  may  be  had  is 
a  matter  of  graver  moment,  and  must  be  deferred 
to  some  other  time.  But  my  present  purpose  is 
to  write  to  you  something  about  Old  Age.  For 
I  desire  that  you  and  I  may  be  lightened  of  this 
burden,  which  we  have  in  common,  of  old  age 
already  pressing  upon  us  or  drawing  close  at  hand,^ 
though  I  am  certain  that  you  indeed  bear  and  will 
bear  it,  as  all  things  else,  serenely  and  wisely.  But 
when  it  came  into  my  mind  to  write  something 
about  old  age,  you  occurred  to  me  as  worthy  to 
receive  in  this  essay  an  offering  of  which  you  and 
I  may  in  common  enjoy  the  benefit.  Indeed,  the 
composition  of  this  book  has  been  so  pleasant  to 
me,  that  it  has  not  only  brushed  away  all  the  vexa- 
tions of  old  age,  but  has  made  it  even  easy  and 
agreeable.     In  truth,  sufficiently  worthy  praise  can 

1  By  the  condition  of  public  affairs,  as  to  wliich  Atticus  pro- 
fessed an  indifference  which  he  can  hardly  have  felt. 

*  Atticus  was  three  years  older  than  Cicero,  who  was  in  his 
si.xty-second  year  when  this  treatise  was  written. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  3 

never  be  given  to  philosophy,  whose  votaries  can 
pass  every  period  of  life  without  annoyance.  But 
on  other  philosophical  subjects  I  have  said  much, 
and  hope  to  revert  to  them  often  ;  this  book,  on  Old 
AgQ,  I  send  specially  to  you.  I  put  what  I  have  to 
say,  not,  like  Aristo  of  Chios,^  into  the  mouth  of 
Tithonus^  (for  a  fictitious  character  cannot  speak 
with  authority),  but  into  that  of  the  aged  Cato,  that 
the  discourse  may  gain  authority  from  his  name. 
With  him  I  introduce  Laelius  and  Scipio,  admiring 
the  ease  with  which  he  bears  old  age,  and  I  give 
his  answers  to  them.  If  I  make  him  talk  more 
learnedly  than  he  was  wont  to  do  in  his  books,  you 
may  ascribe  it  to  the  Greek  literature  and  philoso- 
phy, of  which,  as  is  well  known,  he  was  very  stu- 
dious in  his  latter  years.  But  what  need  is  there 
of  a  longer  preface  ?  For,  as  it  were  in  Cato's  own 
words,  you  shall  forthwith  hear  all  that  I  think  and 
feel  about  old  age. 

'  Latin,  Chins.  Aristo,  or  Aristoii,  of  Chios,  was  a  Stoic 
philosopher,  and  an  immediate  disciple  of  Zeno.  Some  authori- 
ties read  Ceus,  and  there  was  an  Ariston,  a  Peripatetic  philoso- 
pher, of  Ceos,  of  whose  many  writings  only  a  few  fi-agments  have 
been  preserved.  The  two  are  often  confounded,  even  by  ancient 
writers,  and  either  of  them  may  have  written  the  treatise  or 
dialogue  on  old  age  here  referred  to. 

2  The  son  of  Eos,  or  Aurora,  who  obtained  for  him,  from  Zeus, 
the  gift  of  immortality,  but  forgot  to  stipulate  for  that  of  eternal 
youth.  He  shrivelled  in  old  age  by  slow  degrees  ;  his  voice  be- 
came a  mere  chirp,  and  he  at  length  dwindled  into  a  cricket.  Can 
this  myth  mean  that  the  sou  of  the  morning,  the  early  riser,  has 
the  promise  of  long  life  ? 


4  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

II.  SciPlo.  I  often  express,  Marcus  Cato,  in  con- 
versation with  Caius  Laelius,  now  present,  my  admi- 
ration of  your  surpassing  and  consummate  wisdom, 
in  other  matters  indeed,  but  especially  because  I 
have  never  perceived  that  old  age  was  grievous  to 
you,  though  to  old  men  in  general  it  is  so  hateful 
that  they  account  themselves  as  bearing  a  burden 
heavier  than  Aetna.^ 

Cato.  You  seem,  Scipio  and  Laelius,  to  admire 
what  has  been  to  me  by  no  means  difficult.  For 
those  who  have  in  themselves  no  resources  for  a 
good  and  happy  life,  every  period  of  life  is  burden- 
some; but  to  those  who  seek  all  goods  from  within, 
nothing  which  comes  in  the  course  of  nature  can 
seem  evil.  Under  this  head  a  place  especially  be- 
longs to  old  age,  which  all  desire  to  attain,  yet  find 
fault  with  it  when  they  have  reached  it.  Such  is 
the  inconsistency  and  perverseness  of  human  folly. 
They  say  that  age  creeps  upon  them  faster  than 
they  had  thought  possible.  In  the  first  place,  who 
forced  them  to  make  this  false  estimate  ?  In  the 
next  place,  how  could  old  age  be  less  burdensome 
to  them  if  it  came  on  their  eight-hundredth  year 
than  it  is  in  their  eightieth  ?  For  the  time  past, 
however  long,  when  it  had  elapsed,  could  furnish  no 
comfort  to  soothe  a  foolish  old  age.  If,  then,  you 
are  wont  to  admire  my  wisdom,  —  would  that  it 

^  Briareus,  Enceladus,  and  T3^hoeus,  giants,  who  made  war 
against  the  gods,  were  said,  in  Grecian  fable,  to  have  been  buried 
alive  by  Zeus  under  Mount  Aetna.     See  the  Aeneid,  iii.  578. 


Cicero  de  Senectute,  5 

were  worthy  of  your  appreciation  and  of  my  own 
surname,^  —  I  am  wise  in  this  respect,  that  I  fol- 
low and  obey  Nature,  the  sm-est  guide,  as  if  she 
were  a  god,  and  it  is  utterly  improbable  that  she 
has  well  arranged  the  other  parts  of  life,  and  yet, 
like  an  unskilled  poet,  slighted  the  last  act  of  the 
drama.  There  must,  however,  of  necessity,  be  some 
end,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  berries  on  the  trees  and 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  there  must  be  that  which  in 
its  season  of  full  ripeness  is,  so  to  speak,  ready  to 
wither  and  fall,  —  which  a  wise  man  ought  to  bear 
patiently.  For  to  rebel  against  Nature  is  but  to 
repeat  the  war  of  the  Giants  with  the  Gods. 

Laelius.  Indeed,  Cato,  you  will  have  rendered 
us  a  most  welcome  service  —  I  will  answer  for 
Sciplo  —  if,  since  we  hope,  indeed  wish,  at  all 
events,  to  become  old,  we  can  learn  of  you,  far  in 
advance,  in  what  ways  we  can  most  easily  bear  the 
encroachment  of  age. 

Cato.  I  will  render  this  service,  Laelius,  if,  as 
you  say,  it  will  be  agreeable  to  both  of  you. 

Laelius.  We  do  indeed  desire,  Cato,  unless  it 
will  give  you  too  much  trouble,  since  you  have 

1  The  reference  may  here  be  to  Cato,  which  name  he  seems  to 
have  been  the  firet  to  bear,  and  which  may  have  been  given  him 
in  childhood  for  the  promise  of  the  qualities  fully  developed  in 
later  years.  The  .term  denotes  shrewdness  and  cunning,  rather 
than  wisdom,  —  in  fine,  the  feline  attributes  which  have  given 
name  both  in  the  Latin  (catus)  and  in  the  English  to  the  cat. 
Reference  may,  however,  be  had  to  Sapiens,  —  a  surname  cur- 
rently given  to  Cato  in  his  later  years. 


6  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

taken  a  long  journey  which  we  must  begin,  that  you 
will  show  us  the  goal  which  you  liave  reached. 

III.  Cato.  I  will  do  so,  Laelius,  to  the  best  of 
my  ability.  I  have,  indeed,  often  been  a  listener 
to  complaints  of  men  of  my  own  age,  —  for,  as  the 
old  proverb  says,  "  Like  best  mates  with  like,"  ^  — 
such  complaints,  for  instance,  as  those  which  Caius 
Salinator  and  Spurius  x\.lbinus,  men  of  consular 
dignity,  nearly  ray  coevals,  used  to  make,  because 
they  were  deprived  of  the  sensual  gratifications 
without  whicli  life  appeared  to  them  a  blank,  and 
because  they  were  neglected  by  those  by  whom 
they  were  wont  to  be  held  in  reverence.  They 
seemed  to  me  to  lay  the  blame  where  it  did  not 
belong.  For  if  old  age  had  been  at  fault,  I  and  all 
other  persons  of  advanced  years  would  have  the 
same  experience ;  while  I  have  known  many  old 
men  who  have  made  no  complaint,  who  did  not 
regret  their  release  from  the  slavery  of  sensual 
appetite,  and  were  not  despised  by  their  fellow- 
citizens.  But  all  complaints  of  this  kind  are 
chargeable  to  character,  not  to  age.  Old  men 
who  are  moderate  in  their  desires,  and  are  neither 
testy  nor  morose,  find  old  age  endurable ;  but  rude- 
ness and  incivility  are  offensive  at  any  age. 

Laelius.  You  are  right,  Cato;  yet  some  one 
may  perhaps  say  that  old  age  seems  to  you  less 

1  haXin,  Pares  cum  parihis  faciUime  congregantur.  In  Plato's 
Symposium,  'Ofioiov  6fioiep  ciel  irtXi^ft  is  quoted  as  an  old  proverb 
{ira\aihs  \6yos). 


Cicero  de  Seneduie.  7 

burdensome  on  account  of  your  wealth,  your  large 
resources,  your  high  rank,  but  that  these  advantages 
fall  to  the  lot  of  very  few. 

Cato.  There  is,  indeed,  Laelius,  something  in 
this ;  but  it  by  no  means  gives  the  full  explanation. 
It  is  somewhat  as  in  the  case  of  Themistocles  in  an 
altercation  with  a  certain  native  of  Seriphos,^  who 
told  him  that  he  owed  his  illustrious  fame,  not  to 
his  own  greatness,  but  to  that  of  his  country ;  and 
Themistocles  is  said  to  have  answered,  "  If  I  had 
been  born  in  Seriphos,  I  should  not  have  been 
renowned,  nor,  by  Hercules,  would  you  have  been 
eminent  had  you  been  an  Athenian."  Very  much 
the  same  may  be  said  about  old  age,  which  cannot 
be  easy  in  extreme  poverty,  even  to  a  wise  man, 
nor  can  it  be  otherwise  than  burdensome  to  one 
destitute  of  wisdom,  even  with  abundant  resources 
of  every  kind.  The  best-fitting  defensive  armor  of 
old  age,  Scipio  and  Laelius,  consists  in  the  knowl- 
edge and  practice  of  the  virtues,  which,  assiduously 
cultivated,  after  the  varied  experiences  of  a  long 
life,  are  wonderfully  fruitful,  not  only  because  they 
never  take  flight,  not  even  at  the  last  moment, — 

1  One  of  the  Cyclades,  known  in  mythology,  as  the  island  on 
which  Perseus  was  driven  on  shore  and  brought  up,  and  whose 
inhabitants  he  turned  to  stone  with  the  Gorgon's  head  ;  and  in 
history,  for  its  insignificance  and  poverty,  —  the  reason  why  un- 
der the  Roman  emjjerors  it  was  a  frequent  place  of  banishment 
for  state  criminals  ;  celebrated  also  (probably  in  myth  rather  than 
fact)  for  a  race  of  voiceless  frogs.  — Herodotus  tells  this  story  of 
Themistocles. 


S  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

although  this  is  a  consideration  of  prime  impor- 
tance,—  but  because  the  consciousness  of  a  well- 
spent  life  and  a  memory  rich  in  good  deeds  afford 
supreme  happiness. 

IV.  In  my  youth  I  loved  Quintus  Maxiraus.^ 
the  one  who  recovered  possession  of  Tarentum,  then 
an  elderly  man,  as  if  he  had  been  of  my  own  age ; 
for  in  him  gravity  was  seasoned  by  an  affable  de- 
portment, nor  had  time  made  his  manners  less  agree- 
able. When  I  first  became  intimate  with  him,  he 
was  not,  indeed,  so  very  old,  though  advanced  in 
years.  I  was  born  the  year  after  his  first  consu- 
late.^ In  my  early  youth  I  served  as  a  soldier 
under  him  at  Capua,  and  five  years  afterward  at 
Tarentum.  Four  years  later  I  was  made  Quaestor, 
and  held  that  of&ce  in  the  consulship  of  Tuditanus 
and  Cethegus,  at  the  time  when  he,  then  quite  old, 
urged  the  passage  of  the  Cincian  law  concerning 
gifts  and  fees.^  He  in  his  age  showed  in  mili- 
tary command  all  the  vigor  of  youth,  and  by 
his  perseverance  put  a  check  to  Hannibal's  youth- 

1  The  fourth  of  the  name. 

2  Quintus  Maximus  must,  then,  have  been  forty-four  years 
older  than  Cato. 

8  This  law  not  only  prohibited  the  payment  of  fees  or  offering 
of  gifts  to  advocates;  but  it  limited  the  amount  of  gifts  that 
could  be  made  in  any  case,  except  with  certain  legal  formalities. 
The  object  of  this  last  provision  was,  undoubtedly,  to  prevent  the 
wheedling  of  men  out  of  valuable  property  by  taking  advantage 
of  their  illnesses,  their  temporary  loss  of  dis^wsiug  mind,  or  their 
apprehension  of  approaching  death. 


Cicero  de  Sencctute.  9 

ful  enthusiasm.  My  friend  Ennius  well  said  of 
him, — 

*'  One  man  by  slow  delays  restored  our  fortunes, 
Preferring  not  the  people's  praise  to  safety, 
And  thus  his  after-glory  shines  the  more." 

How  much  vigilance,  how  much  wisdom,  did  he 
show  in  the  retaking  of  Tarentum !  In  my  hear- 
ing, indeed,  when  Salinator,  who,  after  the  town  was 
taken,  had  retreated  to  the  citadel,  boastfully  said, 
"  You  recovered  Tarentum,  Quintus  Fabius,  by  my 
aid,"  he  replied,  laughing,  "Very  true,  for,  if  you 
had  not  lost  it,  I  should  never  have  recovered  it."  ^ 
Nor  had  he  more  eminence  as  a  soldier  than  he  won 
as  a  civilian,  when,  in  his  second  consulate,  unsup- 
ported by  his  colleague,  Carvilius,  he  resisted  to  the 
utmost  of  his  ability  Caius  Flaminius,  tribune  of  the 
people,  in  his  division  in  equal  portions,  to  the  ple- 
beians, of  conquered  territory  in  Piceuum  and  Gaul ; 
and  when,  holding  the  ofiice  of  augur,  he  dared  to 
say  that  whatever  was  done  for  the  well-being  of 
the  republic  was  done  under  the  most  favorable 
auspices,  but  that  whatever  measures  were  passed 
to  the  injury  of  the  republic  were  passed  under 

*  The  retaking  of  Tarentum  was  the  fatal  stroke  on  Hannibal 
as  to  the  possession  of  Southern  Italy.  But  in  this  anecdote, 
Cicero,  or  some  early  transcriber,  made  a  mistake  as  to  the  name 
of  the  unsuccessful  commander.  Slarcus  Livius  Salinator  was  a 
distinguished  general;  but  it  was  Marcus  Livius  Macatus  that 
lost  the  town  of  Tarentum,  and  then  did  good  service  from  the 
citadel  toward  its  retaking.  It  is  strange,  but  true,  that  Cicero 
was  not  well  versed  in  the  history  of  the  Punic  wars. 


10  Cicero  de  Scnectute. 

adverse  auspices.  In  him  I  knew  many  things 
worthy  of  renown,  but  notliing  more  admirable  than 
the  way  in  which  he  bore  the  death  of  his  son,  an 
illustrious  man  and  of  consular  dignity.  We  have 
in  our  hands  his  eulogy  on  his  son,  and  in  reading 
it  we  feel  that  he  surpassed  in  this  vein  even  trained 
philosophers.  Nor  was  he  great  only  in  public  and 
in  the  eyes  of  the  community;  but  he  was  even 
more  excellent  in  private  and  domestic  life.  How 
rich  in  conversation  !  How  wise  in  precept !  How 
ample  his  knowledge  of  early  times  !  How  thorough 
his  legal  science  in  everything  appertaining  to  his 
office  as  an  augur !  ^  He  had,  too,  for  a  Roman,  a 
large  amount  of.  literary  culture.  He  retained  in 
his  memory,  also,  all  the  details  of  our  wars,  whether 
in  Italy  or  in  regions  more  remote.  I  indeed  availed 
myself  as  eagerly  of  my  opportunities  of  conversing 
with  him  as  if  I  had  already  divined,  what  proved  to 
be  true,  that,  when  he  should  pass  away,  no  man  of 
equal  intelligence  and  information  would  be  left. 

V.  To  what  purpose  have  I  said  so  much  about 
Maximus  ?    That  you  may  be  assured  by  his  exam- 

^  The  augiirs  acquired  great  power  in  the  age  wlien  tlie  signs 
which  it  was  their  office  to  interpret  were  still  implicitly  believed 
in.  From  the  nice  distinctions  then  deemed  of  importance  there 
grew  up  a  minute  formalism,  which  by  degrees  constituted  a  body 
of  augural  law.  The  augurs  at  first  had  unlimited  authority  in 
their  sphere  ;  but  as  faith  in  auspices  declined,  the  magistrates, 
and  even  patricians  not  in  office,  usurped  and  maintained  certain 
augural  rights,  so  that  there  was  sometimes  a  conflict  of  jurisdic- 
tion, giving  rise  to  nice  questions  of  law. 


Cicero  de  Seiudute.  11 

pie  that  one  has  no  right  to  pronounce  an  old  age 
like  his  wretched.  Yet  it  is  not  every  one  that  can 
be  a  Scipio  or  a  Maximus,  so  that  he  can  recall  the 
memory  of  cities  taken,  of  battles  by  land  and  sea, 
of  wars  conducted,  of  triumphs  won.  There  is, 
however,  a  calm  and  serene  old  age,  which  belongs 
to  a  life  passed  peacefully,  purely,  and  gracefully, 
such  as  we  learn  was  the  old  age  of  Plato,  who  died 
while  writing  in  his  eighty-first  year;  or  that  of 
Isocrates,  who  says  that  he  wrote  the  book  entitled 
Panathcnaicus  ^  in  his  ninety-fourth  year,  and  who 
lived  five  years  afterwards,  and  whose  preceptor, 
Leontinus  Gorgias,  filled  out  one  hundred  and  seven 
years  without  suspending  his  study  and  his  labor. 
When  he  was  asked  why  he  was  willing  to  live  so 
long, he, replied,  "I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  old 
age,"  —  a  noble  answer,  worthy  of  a  learned  man. 
Unwise  men,  indeed,  charge  their  vices  and  their 
faults  upon  old  age.  So  did  not  Ennius,  of  whom  I 
have  just  spoken,  who  writes, 

"  As  the  brave  steed,  oft  on  th'  Olympian  course 
Foremost,  now  worn  with  years,  seeks  quiet  rest," 

comparing  his  own  age  to  that  of  the  brave  horse 
that  had  been  wont  to  win  the  race.  You  can  dis- 
tinctly remember  him.  The  present  Consuls,  Titus 
Flamininus  and  Manius  Acilius,  were  chosen  nine- 
teen years  after  his  death,  which  took  place  in  the 

^  A  discourse  commemorative  of  the  Athenian  patriots  held  in 
special  honor  by  their  fellow-countrymen. 


12  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

consulship  of  Caepio  and  the  second  consulship  of 
Philippus,  when  I,  being  sixty-five  years  old,  with  a 
strong  voice  and  sound  lungs,  spoke  in  favor  of  the 
Yoconian  law.^  At  the  age  of  seventy  years  —  for 
so  many  did  Ennius  live  —  he  bore  the  two  burdens 
which  are  esteemed  the  heaviest,  poverty  and  old 
age,  in  such  a  way  that  he  almost  seemed  to  take 
delight  in  them.  To  enter  into  particulars,  I  find 
on  reflection  four  reasons  why  old  age  seems 
wretched;  —  one,  that  it  calls  us  away  from  the 
management  of  affairs ;  another,  that  it  impairs 
bodily  vigor;  the  third,  that  it  deprives  us  to  a 
great  degree  of  sensual  gratifications ;  the  fourth, 
that  it  brings  one  to  the  verge  of  death.  Let  us 
see,  if  you  please,  how  much  force  and  justice  there 
is  in  each  of  these  reasons. 

VI.  Old  age  cuts  one  off  from  the  management 
of  affairs.  Of  what  affairs  ?  Of  those  whicli  are 
managed  in  youth  and  by  strength  of  body  ?  But 
are  there  not  affairs  properly  belonging  to  the  later 
years  of  life,  which  may  be  administered  by  the 
mind,  even  though  the  body  be  infirm  ?  Did  Quin- 
tus  Maximus  then  do  nothing  ?    Did  Lucius  PauUus, 

1  A  law  restricting,  and  in  the  case  of  large  estates  prohibiting, 
the  bequest  of  property  to  women,  perhaps  with  the  view  of  pre- 
venting the  alienation  of  estates  from  the  families  in  which  they 
had  been  transmitted.  But  an  extract  from  Cato's  speech,  given 
by  Aulus  Gellius,  charges  wives  who  had  separate  estates  of  their 
own  with  first  lending  money  to  their  husbands  in  their  stress  of 
need,  and  then  becoming  their  most  relentless  and  annoying 
creditors. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  13 

your  father,  Scipio,  the  father-in-law  of  that  excel- 
lent man,  ray  son,  do  nothing  ?  Did  other  old  men 
that  I  might  name  —  the  Fabricii,  the  Curii,  the 
Coruncanii  —  do  nothing,  when  they  defended  the 
republic  by  their  counsel  and  influence  ?  Blindness 
came  upon  Appius  Claudius  ^  in  his  old  age ;  yet  he, 
when  the  sentiment  of  the  Senate  leaned  toward 
the  conclusion  of  peace  and  a  treaty  with  Pyrrhus, 
did  not  hesitate  to  say  to  them  what  Ennius  has 
fully  expressed  in  verse,  — 

"  Wont  to  stand  fiim,  upon  what  devious  way 
Demented  rush  ye  now  ?  " 

and  more,  most  forcibly,  to  the  same  purpose.  You 
know  the  poem,  and  the  speech  that  Appius  actu- 
ally made  is  still  extant.  This  took  place  seventeen 
years  after  his  second  consulship,  ten  years  having 

1  Appius  Claudras  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  statesman  and 
the  most  useful  citizen  of  his  time.  His  name  still  lives  and  some 
vestiges  of  his  public  spirit  remain  in  the  Appia  Via,  Rome's 
first  great  military  road,  and  the  Aqua  Appia,  the  earliest  aque- 
duct by  which  water  from  the  mountains  was  brought  into  the 
city.  Livy  tells  a  curious  story  of  his  blindness.  The  patrician 
gens  of  the  Potitii  were  hereditary  priests  of  Hercules,  whom  they 
worshipped  by  rites  which  were  their  family  secret.  Appius, 
probably  apprehensive,  as  so  many  modem  statesmen  have  been, 
of  potential  mischief  from  secret  societies,  hired  these  men  to 
divulge  the  mysteries  of  their  worship  to  certain  public  slaves  or 
servants.  The  consequence  was  that  the  whole  geiis,  including 
twelve  families  and  thirty  young  men,  perished  in  a  single  year, 
and  some  years  afterward  (post  aliquot  annas)  by  the  persistent 
anger  of  the  gods  Appius  was  deprived  of  sight.  Fost,  ergo 
propter. 


14  Cicero  de  Senedide. 

intervened  between  his  two  consulates,  his  censor- 
ship having  preceded  the  first,  —  so  that  you  may 
infer  that  he  was  far  advanced  in  age  at  the  time  of 
the  war  with  Pyrrhus,  and  such  is  the  tradition  that 
has  come  to  us  from  our  fathers.  Those,  therefore, 
who  deny  that  old  age  has  any  place  in  the  manage- 
ment of  affairs,  are  as  unreasonable  as  those  would 
be  w^ho  should  say  that  the  pilot  takes  no  part  in 
sailing  a  ship  because  others  climb  the  masts,  others 
go  to  and  fro  in  the  gangways,  others  bail  the  hold, 
while  he  sits  still  in  the  stern  and  holds  the  helm. 
The  old  man  does  not  do  what  the  young  men  do ; 
but  he  does  greater  and  better  things.  Great  things 
are  accomplished,  not  by  strength,  or  swiftness,  or 
suppleness  of  body,  but  by  counsel,  influence,  de- 
liberate opinion,  of  which  old  age  is  not  wont  to 
be  bereft,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  to  possess  them 
more  abundantly.  This  you  will  grant,  unless  I, 
having  been '  soldier,  and  military  Tribune,  and  sec- 
ond in  command,  and  as  Consul  at  the  head  of  the 
army,  seem  to  you  now  idle  and  useless,  because  I 
am  no  longer  actively  engaged  in  war.  I  now  pre- 
scribe to  the  Senate  what  ought  to  be  done,  and 
how.  I  declare  war  far  in  advance  against  Car- 
thage,^ which  has  long  been  plotting  to  our  detri- 
ment, and  whose  hostility  I  shall  never  cease  to 
fear,  till  I  know  that  the  city  is  utterly  swept  out 

1  Delenda  est  Carthago,  Carthage  must  be  destroyed,  was  the 
close  of  all  Cato's  speeches  in  the  Senate,  whatever  the  subject  of 
discussion. 


Cicero  dc  Senectute.  15 

of  being.  0  that  the  immortal  gods  may  reserve 
for  you,  Scipio,  this  honor,  that  you  may  fully  ac- 
complish what  your  grandfather^  left  to  be  yet 
done !  This  is  the  thirty-third  year  since  his 
death ;  but  the  memory  of  such  a  man  all  coming 
years  will  hold  in  special  honor.  He  died  the  year 
before  my  censorship,  nine  years  after  my  consulate, 
during  which  he  was  chosen  Consul  for  the  second 
time.  If  he  had  lived  till  his  hundredth  year, 
would  he  have  had  reason  to  regret  his  old  age  ? 
He  would  not,  indeed,  have  sought  added  distinc- 
tion by  running,  or  leaping,  or  hurling  the  spear,  or 
handling  the  sword,  but  by  counsel,  reason,  judg- 
ment. Unless  these  were  the  characteristics  of 
seniors  in  age,  our  ancestors  would  not  have  called 
the  supreme  council  the  Senate.  Among  the  Lace- 
daemonians, too,  the  corresponding  name  is  given 
to  the  magistrates  of  the  highest  grade,  who  are 
really  old  men.^  But  if  you  see  fit  to  read  or  hear 
the  history  of  foreign  nations,  you  will  find  that 
states  have  been  undermined  by  young  men,  main- 
tained and  restored  by  old  men. 

"  Say,  how  lost  you  so  great  a  state  so  soon  1 " 
For  this  men  ask,  as  it  is  asked  in  Naevius's  play  of 
TJie  ScJiool,  and  with  other  answers  this  is  among 
the  first:  — 

"  A  brood  came  of  new  leaders,  foolish  striplings." 

^  By  adoption.     See  Introduction. 

2  rtpova-ta.     None  of  the  members  of  this  body  were  less  than 
sixty  years  of  age. 


16  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

Rashness,  indeed,  belongs  to  youth  ;  prudence,  to 
age. 

VII,  But  memory  is  impaired  by  age.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  it  is,  in  persons  who  do  not  exercise 
their  memory,  and  in  those  who  are  naturally  slow- 
minded.  But  Themistocles  knew  by  name  all  the 
citizens  of  Athens,  and  do  you  suppose  that,  at  an 
advanced  age,  when  he  met  Aristides  he  called  him 
Lysimachus  ?  I  not  only  know  the  men  who  are 
now  living;  but  I  have  a  clear  remembrance  of 
their  fathers  and  their  grandfathers.  Nor  am  I 
afraid  to  read  sepulchral  inscriptions,  an  occupa- 
tion which  is  said  to  destroy  the  memory ;  ^  on  the 
other  hand,  my  recollection  of  the  dead  is  thus 
made  more  vivid.  Then,  too,  I  never  heard  of  an 
old  man's  forgetting  where  he  had  buried  his  money. 
Old  men  remember  everything  that  they  care  about,^ 
— the  bonds  they  have  given,  what  is  due  to  them, 
what  they  owe.     What  shall  we  say  of  lawyers  ? 

1  Evidently  the  reference  is  here  to  a  popular  superstition,  of 
which,  however,  I  know  of  no  other  vestige. 

.*  The  converse  of  this  proposition  is,  probably,  the  best  state- 
ment of  the  causes  of  what  is  tenned  the  failure  of  memory  in 
old  age.  Lasting  memory  and  prompt  recollection  are  the  result 
of  attention,  and  attention  springs  from  interest.  Old  men 
have  a  vivid  recollection  of  early  events,  because  their  interest 
in  them  was  vivid  ;  while  in  advanced  life  strong  impressions 
are  more  rai'ely  made,  most  of  its  scenes  and  incidents  being 
little  else  than  the  repetition,  with  slight  change,  of  previous  ex- 
periences. Yet  the  instances  are  not  infrequent  in  which,  after 
one  has  reached  the  condition  in  which  yesterday's  life  is  a  blank, 
a  novel  and  striking  event  remains  unforgotten. 


Cicero  de  Seneciute.  17 

Of  i^riests  ?  ^  Of  augurs  ?  Of  philosophers  ?  How 
many  things  do  they  retain  in  their  memory !  Old 
men  have  their  powers  of  mind  unimpaired,  when 
they  do  not  suspend  their  usual  pursuits  and  their 
habits  of  industry.  Nor  is  this  the  case  only  with 
those  in  conspicuous  stations  and  in  public  office ; 
it  is  equally  true  in  private  and  retired  life.  Sopho- 
cles in  extreme  old  age  still  wrote  tragedies.  Be- 
cause in  his  close  application  he  seemed  to  neglect 
his  property,  his  sons  instituted  judicial  proceedings 
to  deprive  him,  as  mentally  incompetent,  of  the  cus- 
tody of  his  estate,  in  like  manner  as  by  our  law 
fathers  of  families  who  mismanage  their  property 
have  its  administration  taken  from  them.  The  old 
man  is  said  to  have  then  recited  to  the  judges  the 
Oedipus  at  Colonus,  the  play  which  he  had  in  hand 
and  had  just  written,  and  to  have  asked  them 
whether  that  poem  seemed  the  work  of  a  failing, 
intellect.^  On  hearing  this,  the  judges  dismissed 
the  case.  Did  old  age  then  impose  silence,  in  their 
several  modes  of  utterance,  on  him,  on  Homer,  on 
Hesiod,  on  Simonides,  on  Stesichorus,  on  Isocrates 
and  Gorgias  of  whom  I  have  just  spoken,  on  those 

^  There  was  a  considerable  body  of  pontifical  law,  —  corre- 
sponding to  the  canon  law  of  Christendom,  —  consisting,  in 
part,  of  immemorial  usage  or  prescription,  and,  in  part,  even 
of  legislative  enactments,  of  which  the  members  of  the  pontifical 
college  were  the  judges  and  administrators,  so  that,  like  the  aii- 
gm-s,  they  needed  officially  miimpaired  powers  of  mind  and  reten- 
tive  memory. 

'  He  was  at  this  time  nearly  ninety  years  of  age. 
2 


18  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

foremost  of  philosophers,  Pythagoras  and  Democri- 
tus,  on  Plato,  on  Xenocrates,  in  later  time,  on  Zeno 
and  Cleanthes,  or  on  that  Diogenes  the  Stoic  whom 
you  saw  when  he  was  in  Rome  ?  ^  Or  with  all  these 
men  was  not  activity  in  their  life-work  coextensive 
with  their  lives  ?  But  leaving  out  of  the  account 
these  pursuits,  which  have  in  them  a  divine  element, 
I  can  name  old  Romans  who  are  farmers  in  what 
was  the  Sabine  territory,  my  neighbors  and  friends,* 
without  whose  oversight  hardly  any  important  work 
is  ever  done  on  their  land,  whether  in  sowing,  or 
harvesting,  or  storing  their  crops.  This,  however, 
is  not  so  surprising  in  them ;  for  no  one  is  so  old 
that  he  does  not  expect  to  live  a  year  longer.  But 
the  same  persons  bestow  great  pains  in  labor  from 
which  they  know  that  they  shall  never  derive  any 
benefit. 

"  He  plants 
Trees  to  bear  fruit  when  he  shall  be  no  more," 

as  our  poet  Statins  says  in  his  Synephebi.^  Nor,  in- 
deed can  the  farmer,  though  he  be  an  old  man,  if 
asked  for  whom  he  is  planting,  hesitate  to  answer, 
"  For  the  immortal  gods,  whose  will  it  was,  not  only 

1  "We  know  not  how  long  Homer  or  Hesiod  lived ;  but  they  are 
always  spoken  of  as  old  men.  The  reputed  age  of  the  others  on 
the  list  ranged  from  Plato,  at  eighty-one,  to  Democritus,  who  was 
said  to  have  reached  his  hundredth  year. 

2  Cato  generally  lived  on  his  Sabine  farm  when  public  duty 
did  not  require  his  presence  in  Rome. 

3  Young  Friends,  probably  the  name  of  a  play.  None  of  the 
works  of  CaecUius  Statins,  its  author,  are  extant. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  19 

that  I  should  receive  this  estate  from  my  ancestors, 
but  that  I  should  also  transmit  it  in  undiminished 
value  to  my  posterity." 

VIII.  What  I  have  just  quoted  from  Caecilius  ^ 
about  the  old  man's  providing  for  a  coming  genera- 
tion, is  very  far  preferable  to  what  he  says  else- 
where, — 

"  Old  Age,  forsooth,  if  other  ill  thou  bring  not, 
This  will  suffice,  that  with  one's  lengthened  years 
So  much  he  sees  he  fain  would  leave  unseen,"  — 

and  much,  it  may  be,  that  he  is  glad  to  see ;  while 
youth,  too,  often  encounters  what  it  would  willingly 
shun.     Still  worse,  that  same  Caecilius  writes,  — 

"  The  utmost  misery  of  age  I  count  it, 
To  feel  that  it  is  hateful  to  the  young." 

Agreeable  rather  than  hateful ;  for  as  wise  old  men 
are  charmed  with  well-disposed  youth,  so  do  young 
men  delight  in  the  counsels  of  the  old,  by  which 
they  are  led  to  the  cultivation  of  the  virtues.  I  do 
not  feel  that  I  am  less  agreeable  to  you  than  you 
are  to  me.  —  To  return  to  our  subject,  you  see  that 
old  age  is  not  listless  and  inert,  but  is  even  labori- 
ous, with  work  and  plans  of  work  always  in  hand, 
generally,  indeed,  with  employments  corresponding 
to  the  pursuits  of  earlier  life.  But  what  shall  we 
say  of  those  who  even  make  new  acquisitions? 

1  Caecilius  Statius.  There  can  hardly  be  need  of  discrimi- 
nating him  from  Publius  Papinius  Statius,  whose  poems  are 
extant,  and  familiariy  known  to  classical  scholars. 


20  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

Thus  we  see  Solon,  in  one  of  his  poems,  boasting 
that,  as  he  grows  old,  he  widens  the  range  of  his 
knowledge  every  day.  I  have  done  the  like,  hav- 
ing learned  Greek  in  my  old  age,  and  have  taken 
hold  of  the  study  so  eagerly  —  as  if  to  quench  a 
long  thirst  —  that  I  have  already  become  familiar 
with  the  topics  from  Greek  authors  which  I  have 
been  using,  as  I  have  talked  with  you,  by  way  of 
illustration.  When  I  read  that  Socrates  in  his  old 
age  learned  to  play  on  the  lyre,  I  could  have 
wished  to  do  the  same,  had  the  old  custom  been 
still  rife ;  but  I  certainly  have  worked  hard  on  my 
Greek. 

IX.  To  pass  to  the  next  charge  against  old  age, 
I  do  not  now  desire  the  bodily  strength  of  youth, 
any  more  than  when  I  was  a  young  man  I  desired 
the  strength  of  a  bull  or  an  elephant.  It  is  becom- 
ing to  make  use  of  what  one  has,  and  whatever  you 
do,  to  do  in  proportion  to  your  strength.  What 
language  can  be  more  contemptible  than  that  re- 
ported of  Milon  of  Crotona,^  when  in  his  old  age  he 
saw  athletes  taking  exercise  on  the  race-ground, 
and  is  said  to  have  cast  his  eyes  on  his  own  arms, 
and  to  have  exclaimed,  weeping,  "  But  these  are 
dead  now  "  ?  Not  these,  indeed,  simpleton,  so  much 
as  you  yourself;  for  you  never  gained  any  fame 
from  your  own  self,  but  only  from  your  lungs  and 
arms.     You  hear  nothing  like  this  from  Sextus 

1  Six  times  victor  in  wrestling  in  the  Olympic  games,  and  six 
times  in  the  Pythian. 


Cicero  de  Senedufe.  21 

Aelius,^  nothing  at  a  much  earlier  time  from  Titus 
Coruncanius,^  nor  yet  from  Publius  Crassus,^  who 
expounded  the  laws  to  their  fellow-citizens,  and 
whose  wisdom  grew  to  their  last  breath.  There 
is  reason,  indeed,  to  fear  that  a  mere  orator  may 
lose  something  of  his  power  with  age ;  for  he  needs 
not  mind  alone,  but  strong  lungs  and  bodily  vigor. 
Yet  there  is  a  certain  musical  quality  of  the  voice 
which  becomes  —  I  know  not  how  —  even  more 
melodious  in  old  age.  This,  indeed,  I  have  not 
yet  lost,  and  you  see  how  old  I  am.  But  the  elo- 
quence that  becomes  one  of  advanced  years  is  calm 
and  gentle,  and  not  infrequently  a  clear-headed  old 
man  commands  special  attention  by  the  simple, 
quiet  elegance  of  his  style.  If,  however,  you  can- 
not attain  this  merit,  you  may  be  able  at  least  to 
give  wholesome  advice  to  Scipio  and  Laelius.  You 
can  at  least  help  others  by  your  counsel ;  and  what 
is  more  pleasant  than  old  age  surrounded  by  young 
disciples  ?  Must  we  not,  indeed,  admit  that  old 
age  has  sufficient  strength  to  teach  young  men,  to 
educate  them,  to  train  them  for  the  discharge  of 
every  duty  ?    And  what  can  be  more  worthy  of  re- 

1  The  most  distingiiislied  jurist  of  his  time,  and  not  many 
years  Cato's  senior. 

2  Said  to  have  been  the  earliest  jurist  who  received  pupils. 
He  was  undoubtedly  second  in  learning  and  in  practical  wisdom, 
as  in  reputation  and  official  honor,  to  no  man  of  his  age.  He 
flourished  about  a  century  before  Cato's  time. 

*  Said  to  have  been  equally  learned  and  skilled  in  civil  and 
in  pontifical  law.     He  was  not  many  years  older  than  Cato. 


22  Cicero  de  Seneetute. 

nown  than  work  like  this  ?  I  used  to  think  Cneius 
and  Publius  Scipio,  and,  Scipio,  your  two  grand- 
fathers, Lucius  Aemilius  and  Publius  Africanus, 
truly  fortunate  in  being  surrounded  by  noble  youth ; 
nor  are  there  any  masters  of  liberal  culture  who 
are  not  to  be  regarded  as  happy,  even  though  their 
strength  may  have  failed  with  lengthened  years. 
This  failure  of  strength,  however,  is  due  oftener  to 
the  vices  of  youth  than  to  the  necessary  infirmity 
of  age  ]  for  a  licentious  and  profligate  youth  trans- 
mits to  one's  later  years  a  worn-out  bodily  consti- 
tution, Cyrus  indeed,  in  his  dying  speech  which 
Xenophon  records,  though  somewhat  advanced  in 
years,  says  that  he  has  never  felt  that  his  old  age 
was  more  feeble  than  his  youth.  I  remember  in  my 
boyhood  Lucius  Metellus,  who,  having  been  made 
high-priest  four  years  after  his  second  consulate, 
served  in  that  office  twenty-two  years,^  and  w^as  to 
the  very  last  in  such  full  strength  that  he  did  not 
even  feel  the  loss  of  youth.     There  is  no  need  of 

1  He  was  Consul  in  251  and  247  B.  C.  The  earliest  age  at 
which  he  was  eligible  to  the  consulship  was  forty-three  ;  but  he 
probably  must  have  reached  that  dignity  at  a  later  age,  if  he  was 
80  very  old  a  man  thirty  years  afterward.  The  pontifex  inaxiynus 
(for  which  we  have  no  better  English  rendering  than  high-priest), 
like  the  other  pmitifices,  held  his  office  by  life  tenure.  At  some 
epochs,  he  was  chosen  by  popular  vote  ;  at  others,  appointed  by 
the  college.  He  and  the  pcmtifices  were  not  priests  of  any  special 
divinity,  but  the  legal  trustees  of  the  national  religion,  its  rites 
and  its  laws.  The  pontifex  maximus  was,  oftener  than  not,  a 
jurist  of  eminence,  and  most  of  the  early  Koman  jurists  attained 
that  dignity. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  23 

my  speaking  of  myself,  though  that  is  an  old  man's 
habit,  and  is  conceded  as  a  privilege  of  age. 

X.  Do  you  not  know  how  very  often  Homer 
introduces  Nestor  as  talking  largely  of  his  own 
merits  ?  Nor  was  there  any  fear  that,  while  he 
told  the  truth  about  himself,  he  would  incur  the 
reproach  of  oddity  or  garrulity ;  for,  as  Homer  says, 
"  words  sweeter  than  honey  flowed  from  his  tongue." 
For  this  suavity  of  utterance  he  had  no  need  of 
bodily  strength ;  yet  for  this  alone  the  leader  of  the 
Greeks,^  while  not  craving  ten  like  Ajax,  says  that 
with  ten  like  Nestor  he  should  be  sure  of  the  speedy 
fall  of  Troy.  —  But  to  return  to  my  own  case,  I 
am  now  in  my  eighty-fourth  year.  I  should  be 
glad  if  I  could  make  precisely  the  same  boast  with 
Cyrus ;  yet,  in  default  of  it,  I  can  say  this  at  least, 
that,  while  I  am  not  so  stronc;  as  I  was  when  a  sol- 
dier  in  the  Punic  war,  or  a  Quaestor  in  the  same 
war,  or  Consul  in  Spain,  or  when,  four  years  after- 
ward, I  fought  as  military  Tribune  ^  at  Thermopylae, 
in  the  consulate  of  Manius  Acilius  Glabrio,  still,  as 
you  see,  old  age  has  not  wholly  unstrung  my  nerves 

1  Agamemnon,  who  craves  ten  <TviJ.<ppadjj.oves,  equally  wise  in 
counsel,  with  Nestor. 

^  According  to  Livy,  Cato  was  legatus,  or  second  in  command, 
at  this  time,  and  it  is  hardly  possible  that  an  ex-consul  should 
have  served  as  a  military  tribune.  We  have  here,  perhaps,  an 
oversight  of  Cicero,  or,  possibly,  an  over-acting  of  the  old  man's 
treacherous  memory  in  Cato,  whose  extreme  old  age  Cicero  evi- 
dently personates  with  marvellous  dramatic  skill  throughout  this 
dialogue. 


24  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

or  broken  me  down.  Neither  the  Senate,  nor  the 
rostrum,  nor  my  friends,  nor  my  clients,  nor  my 
guests  miss  the  strength  that  I  have  lost.  Nor  did 
I  ever  give  assent  to  that  ancient  and  much-lauded 
proverbial  saying,  that  you  must  become  an  old 
man  early  if  you  wish  to  be  an  old  man  long.  I 
should,  indeed,  prefer  a  shorter  old  age  to  being  old 
before  my  time.  Thus  no  one  has  wanted  to  meet 
me  to  whom  I  have  denied  myself  on  the  plea  of 
age.  Yet  I  have  less  strength  than  either  of  you. 
Nor  have  you  indeed  the  strength  of  Titus  Pontius 
the  centurion.^  Is  he  therefore  any  better  than 
you  ?  Provided  one  husbands  his  strength,  and 
does  not  attempt  to  go  beyond  it,  he  will  not  be 
hindered  in  his  work  by  any  lack  of  the  requisite 
strength.  It  is  said  that  Milo  walked  the  whole 
length  of  the  Olympian  race-ground  with  a  living 
ox  on  his  shoulders ;  ^  but  which  would  you  prefer, 
—  this  amount  of  bodily  strength,  or  the  strength 
of  mind  that  Pythagoras  had  ?  ^    In  fine,  I  would 

1  Nothing  else  is  known  of  Pontius  than  this  reference  to  his 
extraordinary  strength.  He  may  be  the  centurion  of  that  name, 
whose  name  alone  occurs  in  some  verses  of  Lucilius  quoted  by 
Cicero  in  the  De  Finibus. 

2  He  is  said  to  have  commenced  by  lifting  and  carrying  a  calf 
daily,  and  to  have  continued  so  doing  till  the  calf  had  attained 
fuU  growth. 

"  There  was  a  tradition  that  Milo  was  a  pupil  of  Pythagoras, 
and  that  on  one  occasion  the  roof  of  the  building  in  whicli  Py- 
thagoras was  lecturing  gave  way,  and  was  sustained  by  the  single 
might  of  Milo. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  25 

have  you  use  strength  of  body  while  you  have  it:, 
when  it  fails,  I  would  not  have  you  complain  of  its 
loss,  unless  you  think  it  fitting  for  young  men  to 
regret  their  boyhood,  or  for  those  who  have  passed 
on  a  little  farther  in  life  to  want  their  youth  back 
again.  Life  has  its  fixed  course,  and  nature  one 
unvarying  way;  each  age  has  assigned  to  it  what 
best  suits  it,  so  that  the  fickleness  of  boyhood,  the 
sanguine  temper  of  youth,  the  soberness  of  riper 
years,  and  the  maturity  of  old  age,  equally  have 
something  in  harmony  with  nature,  which  ought 
to  be  made  availing  in  its  season.  You,  Scipio, 
must  have  heard  what  your  grandfather's  host 
Masinissa  ^  does  now  that  he  is  ninety  years  old. 
When  he  starts  on  a  journey  on  foot,  he  never 
mounts  a  horse ;  when  he  starts  on  horseback,  he 
never  relieves  himself  by  walking ;  he  is  never 
induced  by  rain  or  cold  to  cover  his  head ;  he  has 
the  utmost  power  of  bodily  endurance ;  and  so  he 
performs  in  full  all  the  offices  and  functions  of  a 
king.  Exercise  and  temperance,  then,  can  preserve 
even  in  old  age  something  of  one's  pristine  vigor. 

XL  Old  age  lacks  strength,  it  is  said.  But 
strength  is  not  demanded  of  old  age.  My  period 
of  life  is  exempted  by  law  and  custom  from  offices 

*  King  of  the  Numidians,  and  for  the  most  part  a  faithful, 
though  not  a  disinterested,  ally  of  the  Romans,  in  the  Punic  wars. 
He  was  eulogized  by  Roman  writers  generally  ;  yet  with  the  rude 
strength  he  probably  combined  no  little  of  the  rade  ethics  of  a 
barbarian  chieftan. 


26  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

which  cannot  be  borne  without  strength.^  There- 
fore we  are  compelled  to  do,  not  what  we  are  unable 
to  do,  but  even  less  than  we  can  do.  Is  it  said  that 
many  old  men  are  so  feeble  that  they  are  incapable 
of  any  duty  or  charge  whatsoever  ?  This,  I  answer, 
is  not  an  inability  peculiar  to  old  age,  but  common 
to  bodily  infirmity  at  whatever  period  of  life.  How 
feeble,  Scipio,  was  that  son  of  Africanus  who  adopted 
you !  2  But  for  this,  he  would  have  shone  second  in 
his  family  as  a  luminary  of  the  state,  adding  to  his 
father's  greatness  a  more  ample  intellectual  culture. 
What  wonder,  then,  is  it  that  old  men  are  some- 
times feeble,  when  it  is  a  misfortune  which  even  the 
young  cannot  always  escape  ?  Old  age,  Laelius  and 
Scipio,  should  be  resisted,  and  its  deficiencies  should 
be  supplied  by  faithful  effort.  Old  age,  like  disease, 
should  be  fought  against.  Care  must  be  bestowed 
upon  the  health ;  moderate  exercise  must  be  taken ; 
the  food  and  drink  should  be  sufficient  to  recruit 
the  strength,  and  not  in  such  excess  as  to  become 
oppressive.  Nor  yet  should  the  body  alone  be  sus- 
tained in  vigor,  but  much  more  the  powers  of  mind ; 
for  these  too,  unless  you  pour  oil  into  the  lamp, 

1  By  law  no  one  over  forty-six  years  of  age  was  required  to 
render  military  service,  and  Senators  above  sixty  years  of  age  were 
not  summoned  to  the  sessions  of  the  Senate,  but  attended  them 
or  were  absent  from  them  at  their  own  option. 

*  Pnblius  Cornelius  Scipio  Africanus  Minor,  undoubtedly  in 
genius,  learning,  and  ability  the  foremost  of  the  Scipio  family, 
but  never  able  to  fill  any  other  oflBces  than  those  —  involving 
little  labor  —  of  Augur  and  Flamm  Dialia. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  27 

are  extinguished  by  old  age.  Indeed,  while  over- 
exertion tends  by  fatigue  to  weigh  down  the  body, 
exercise  makes  the  mind  elastic.  For,  when  Caeci- 
lius  speaks  of 

"  Foolish  old  men,  fit  sport  for  comedy,"  ^ 

he  means  those  who  are  credulous,  forgetful,  weak- 
minded,^  and  these  are  the  faults,  not  of  old  age, 
but  of  lazy,  indolent,  drowsy  old  age.  As  wanton- 
ness and  licentiousness  are  the  faults  of  the  young 
rather  than  of  the  old,  yet  not  of  all  young  men, 
but  only  of  such  of  them  as  are  depraved,  so  the 
senile  folly  which  is  commonly  called  dotage^  be- 
longs not  to  all,  but  only  to  frivolous  old  men. 
Appius,  when  both  blind  and  old,  governed  four 
grown-up  sons,  five  daughters,  a  very  large  house- 
hold, a  numerous  body  of  clients ;  for  he  had  his 
mind  on  the  alert,  like  a  bent  bow,  nor  did  he,  as 
he  became  feeble,  succumb  to  old  age.  He  main- 
tained, not  only  authority,  but  absolute  command 
over  all  who  belonged  to  him.  His  servants  feared 
him  ;  his  children  held  him  in  awe ;  all  loved  him. 
In  that  family  the  manners  and  discipline  of  the 
earlier  time  were  still  in  the  ascendant.     Old  age, 

1  A  foolish  old  man,  the  butt  of  ridicule  and  the  ■\dctim  of 
fraud,  trickery,  and  knavery,  was  a  favorite  character  in  Roman 
comedy,  having  a  part  in  almost  every  comic  drama  extant. 

2  Latin,  dissolutos,  which  might  be  not  unaptly  rendered  ovi 
of  joint,  or  at  loose  ends. 

8  Latin,  deliratio,  which  is  here  much  better  expressed  by 
dotage  than  by  delirium. 


28  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

indeed,  is  worthy  of  honor  only  when  it  defends 
itself,  when  it  asserts  its  rights,  when  it  comes  into 
bondage  to  no  one,  when  even  to  the  last  breath  it 
maintains  its  sway  over  those  of  its  own  family. 
Still  farther,  as  I  hold  in  high  esteem  the  youth 
who  has  in  him  some  of  the  qualities  of  age,  I  have 
like  esteem  for  the  old  man  in  whom  there  is  some- 
thing of  the  youth,  which  he  who  cultivates  may 
be  old  in  body,  but  will  never  be  so  in  mind.  I 
have  now  in  hand  the  seventh  Book  of  my  History} 
I  am  collecting  all  the  memorials  of  earlier  times. 
I  am  just  now  writing  out,  as  my  memory  serves 
me,  my  speeches  in  the  celebrated  cases  that  I  have 
defended.  I  am  treating  of  augural,  pontifical, 
civil  law.  I  read  a  good  deal  of  Greek.  At  the 
same  time,  in  order  to  exercise  my  memory  in  the 
method  prescribed  by  Pythagoras,^  I  recall  every 
evening  whatever  I  have  said,  heard,  or  done  dur- 
ing the  day.  These  are  the  exercises  of  the  mind  ; 
these,  the  race-ground  of  the  intellect.  In  these 
pursuits  while  I  labor  vigorously,  I  hardly  feel  my 
loss  of  bodily  strength.  I  appear  in  court  in  behalf 
of  my  friends.     I  often  take  my  place  in  the  Senate, 

1  Latin,  Origines.  This  was  an  historical  work  in  seven  Books, 
some  fragments  of  which  are  extant.  It  purported  to  give  the 
history  of  Rome  from  its  foundation  to  the  author's  own  time.  In 
the  seventh  Book  his  own  speeches  had  their  proper  place.  The 
second  and  third  Books  gave  the  history  of  the  origin  of  the 
Italian  towns.     Hence  the  name  of  the  entire  work. 

2  Prescribed  by  him,  however,  not  for  mnemonic,  but  for  moral 
uses. 


Cicero  de  Senectuie.  29 

and  I  there  introduce  of  my  own  motion  ^  subjects 
on  which  I  have  thought  much  and  long,  and  I 
defend  my  opinions  with  strength  of  mind,  not  of 
body.  If  I  were  too  feeble  to  pursue  this  course 
of  life,  I  still  on  my  bed  should  find  pleasure  in 
thinking  out  what  I  could  no  longer  do ;  but  that  I 
am  able  still  to  do,  as  well  as  to  think,  is  the  result 
of  my  past  life.  One  who  is  always  occupied  in 
these  studies  and  labors  is  unaware  when  age  creeps 
upon  him.  Thus  one  grows  old  gradually  and  un- 
consciously, and  life  is  not  suddenly  extinguished, 
but  closes  when  by  length  of  time  it  is  burned  out. 
XII.  I  come  now  to  the  third  charge  against 
old  age,  that,  as  it  is  alleged,  it  lacks  the  pleasures 
of  sense.  O  admirable  service  of  old  age,  if  in- 
deed it  takes  from  us  what  in  youth  is  more  harm- 
ful than  all  things  else !  For  I  would  have  you 
hear,  young  men,  an  ancient  discourse  of  Archytas 
of  Tarentum,^  a  man  of  great  distinction  and  eeleb- 

1  While  in  the  Roman  Senate  individual  Senators  could  not 
introduce  resolutions  without  previous  formalities,  there  was  the 
same  liberty  of  debate  that  exists  in  our  Congress,  and  a  Senator 
could  give  free  utterance  to  his  views  on  any  subject,  however 
remote  from  the  business  in  hand. 

^  Archytas  was  equally  distinguished  as  a  philosopher,  mathe- 
matician, statesman,  and  general.  He  is  believed  to  have  been 
coeval  with  Plato,  though  there  is  some  discrepancy  of  authorities 
as  to  the  precise  period  when  he  lived.  Certain  letters  that  pur- 
port to  have  passed  between  him  and  Plato  are  preserved  ;  but 
their  genuineness  is  open  to  question.  He  was  represented  as 
having  been  singularly  pure,  kind,  and  generous  in  his  private 
life. 


30  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

rity,  as  it  was  repeated  to  me  when  in  my  youth  I 
was  at  Tarentum  with  Quintus^  Maximus.  "  ]\Ian 
has  received  from  nature,"  said  he,  "  no  more  fatal 
scourge  than  bodily  pleasure,  by  which  the  passions 
in  their  eagerness  for  gratification  are  made  reckless 
and  are  released  from  all  restraint.  Hence  spring 
treasons  against  one's  country' ;  hence,  overthrows  of 
states ;  hence,  clandestine  plottings  with  enemies. 
In  fine,  there  is  no  form  of  guilt,  no  atrocity  of 
evil,  to  the  accomplishment  of  which  men  are  not 
driven  by  lust  for  pleasure.  Debaucheries,  adulte- 
ries, and  all  enormities  of  that  kind  have  no  other 
inducing  cause  than  the  allurements  of  pleasure. 
Still  more,  while  neither  Nature  nor  any  god  has 
bestowed  upon  man  aught  more  noble  than  mind, 
nothing  is  so  hostile  as  pleasure  to  this  divine  en- 
dowment and  gift.  Nor  while  lust  bears  sway  can 
self-restraint  find  place,  nor  under  the  reign  of 
pleasure  can  virtue  have  any  foothold  whatever." 
That  this  might  be  better  understood,  Archytas 
asked  his  hearers  to  imagine  a  person  under  the 
excitement  of  the  highest  amount  of  bodily  pleas- 
ure that  could  possibly  be  enjoyed,  and  maintained 
that  it  was  perfectly  obvious  to  every  one  that  so 
long  as  such  enjoyment  lasted  it  was  impossible  for 
the  mind  to  act,  or  for  anything  to  be  determined  by 
reason  or  reflection.  Hence  he  concluded  that  noth- 
ing was  so  execrable  and  baneful  as  pleasure,  since, 
when  intense  and  prolonged,  it  extinguishes  all  the 
light  of  intellect.     That  Archytas  discoursed  thus 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  31 

with  Caius  Pontius  the  Samnite,  father  of  the  Pon- 
tius who  defeated  the  consuls  Spurius  Postumius 
and  Titus  Veturius  at  the  Caudine  Forks/ 1  learned 
from  Xearchus  of  Tarentum,  my  host,  a  persistent 
friend  of  the  Ptoman  people,  who  said  that  he  had 
heard  it  from  his  elders,  Plato  having  been  present 
when  it  was  uttered,  who,  I  find,  came  to  Tarentum 
in  the  consulate  of  Lucius  Camillus  and  Appius 
Claudius.  To  what  purpose  do  I  speak  thus  ? 
That  you  may  understand  that,  were  we  indeed 
unable  by  reason  and  wisdom  to  spurn  pleasure, 
we  ought  to  feel  the  warmest  gratitude  to  old  age 
for  making  what  is  opposed  to  our  duty  no  longer  a 
source  of  delight.  For  pleasure  thwarts  good  coun- 
sel, is  the  enemy  of  reason,  and,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
blindfolds  the  eyes  of  the  mind,  nor  has  it  anything 
in  common  with  virtue.  It  was,  indeed,  with  ^reat 
reluctance  that,  seven  years  after  his  consulate,  I 
expelled  from  the  Senate  Lucius  Flamininus,  the 
brother  of  that  eminently  brave  man  Titus  Flami- 
ninus ;  but  I  thought  that  such  vile  conduct  as  his 
ought  to  be  branded.  For  he,  during  his  consul- 
ship in  Gaul,  was  persuaded  by  the  companion  of 
his  lust,  at  a  banquet,  himself  to  kill  with  an  axe 
one  of  the  prisoners  in  chains  and  under  sentence 
of  death.  ^     He  escaped  during  the  censorship  of 

1  Livy's  story  is  even  worse  than  this.  He  says  that  a  Boian 
noble  came  with  his  children  to  cast  himself  upon  the  protection 
of  the  Consul,  who,  because  his  infamous  associate  complained  of 
havijig  never  seen  a  gladiator  die,  first  struck  the  Boian's  head 


32  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

his  brother,  my  immediate  predecessor ;  but  I  and 
my  colleague  Flaccus  could  not  by  any  possibility 
give  our  implied  sanction  to  lust  so  infamous,  so 
abandoned,  which  blended  with  private  ignominy 
disgrace  to  the  office  of  supreme  commander  of  our 
army. 

XIII.  I  have  often  heard  from  my  seniors  in 
age,  who  said  that  they  when  they  were  boys  had 
so  heard  from  the  old  men  of  their  time,  that  Caius 
Fabricius  was  wont  to  express  his  amazement  when, 
while  he  was  ambassador  to  King  Pyrrhus,  Cineas 
the  Thessalonian  told  him  that  there  was  a  certain 
man  in  Athens,^  professing  to  be  a  philosopher,  who 
taught  that  aU  that  we  do  ought  to  be  referred  to 
pleasure  as  a  standard.  Fabricius  having  told  this 
to  Manius  Curius  and  Titus  Coruncanius,  they  used 
to  wish  that  the  Samnites  and  Pyrrhus  himself 
might  become  converts  to  this  doctrine,  so  that, 
giving  themselves  up  to  pleasure,  they  might  be 
the  more  easily  conquered.  Manius  Curius  had 
lived  in  intimacy  with  Publius  Decius,  who,  five 
years  before  Curius  was  Consul,  had  in  his  fourth 

with  a  sword,  and  when  he  attempted  to  retreat,  invokiug  the 
good  faith  of  the  Roman  people,  stabbed  him  to  the  heart. 

*  Epicurus,  undoubtedly.  Cineas  was  his  contemporary, 
though  probably  not  his  disciple.  He  was  the  intimate  friend 
and  favorite  minister  of  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epeirus,  who  used  to 
say  that  Cineas  had  taken  more  cities  by  his  words  than  he  him- 
self had  taken  by  his  sword.  This  sentence  —  almost  overdone  — 
is  evidently  framed  expressly  in  imitation  of  an  old  man's  ram- 
bling way  of  telling  a  story. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  33 

consulate  devoted  his  own  life  for  the  safety  of  the 
state.^  Fabricius  had  known  Publius  Decius,  Co- 
runcanius  had  known  him,  and  from  that  act  of  self- 
sacrifice,  as  well  as  from  his  whole  life,  they  inferred 
that  there  is  that  which  in  its  very  nature  is  beau- 
tiful and  excellent,  which  is  chosen  of  one's  own 
free  will,  and  which  every  truly  good  man  pursues, 
spurning  and  despising  pleasure.  But  to  what  pur- 
pose am  I  saying  so  much  about  pleasure  ?  Because 
it  is  not  only  no  reproach  to  old  age,  but  even  its 
highest  merit,  that  it  does  not  severely  feel  the  loss 
of  bodily  pleasures.  But,  you  may  say,  it  must 
dispense  with  sumptuous  feasts,  and  loaded  tables, 
and  oft-drained  cups.  True,  but  it  equally  dis- 
penses with  sottishness,  and  indigestion,  and  trou- 
bled dreams.^  But  if  any  license  is  to  be  given  to 
pleasure,  seeing  that  we  do  not  easily  resist  its 
allurements,  —  insomuch  that  Plato  calls  pleasure 
the  bait  of  evil,  because,  forsooth,  men  are  cauglit 
by  it  as  fishes  by  the  hook,  —  old  age,  while  it  dis- 
penses with  excessive  feasting,  yet  can  find  delight 
in  moderate  conviviality.     When  I  was  a  boy  I 

1  In  the  battle  of  Sentinum,  Decius,  finding  that  his  soldiers 
were  giving  way  before  the  fierce  onslaught  of  the  Gauls,  called 
one  of  the  pontifices,  and  asked  him  to  dictate  the  proper  form  of 
self-devotion,  with  imprecation  upon  the  enemy.  Then,  repeat- 
ing the  sacred  words,  he  rushed  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  and 
was  slain.  His  army,  inspirited  by  liis  self-sacrifice,  won  a  splen- 
did victory.  His  father  had,  on  a  previous  occasion,  devoted 
himself  in  like  form  and  manner. 

2  Latin,  insomniis,  which  literally  means  sleeplessness. 

3 


84  Cicero  de  Senecfute. 

often  saw  Caius  Duilius,  the  son  of  Marcus,  who 
first  gained  a  naval  victory  over  the  Carthaginians, 
returning  home  from  supper.  He  took  delight  in 
the  frequent  escort  of  a  torch-bearer  and  a  flute- 
player,  —  the  first  person  not  actually  in  office  who 
ventured  on  such  display,  —  a  liberty  assumed  on 
the  score  of  his  military  fame.^  But  why  am  I 
talking  about  others  ?  I  now  return  to  my  own 
case.  In  the  first  place,  I  have  for  many  years  be- 
longed to  a  guild.2  Indeed,  guilds  were  established 
when  I  was  Quaestor,  at  the  time  when  the  Idaean 
rites  in  honor  of  the  Great  Mother  were  adopted  in 
Eome.  I  then  used  to  feast  with  my  guild  fellows, 
moderately  on  the  whole,  yet  with  something  of  the 
joviality  that  belonged  to  my  earlier  years ;  but 
with  advancing  age,  day  by  day,  everything  is  tem- 
pered down.     Nor  did  I  ever  measure  my  delight 

1  Dr.  Schmitz,  in  Smith's  Dictionary,  says,  undoubtedly  ou 
competent  authority,  though  I  can  find  none,  that  the  torcli- 
bearer  and  the  flute-player  were  permitted  to  Duilius  as  a  reward 
for  his  victory.  Livy  says,  in  almost  the  same  words  with  those 
in  our  text,  that  Duilius  assumed  these  marks  of  distinction. 

'  Club  would  perhaps  be  a  better  rendering.  The  Eoman 
clubs  were  formed  nominally  in  honor  of  some  divinity,  but  grew 
naturally  into  associations  for  convivial  enjoyment,  by  the  same 
tendencies  which  in  Christendom  have  converted  holy  days  into 
holidays.  Whenever  a  new  worship  was  introduced,  a  new  club 
was  formed  to  take  it  in  charge.  Cato's  club  was  formed  at  the 
time  when  a  shapeless  stone,  probably  meteoric,  —  said  to  have 
fallen  from  heaven  on  Mount  Ida,  and  worshipped  under  the  name 
of  Magna  Mater,  or  Cybele,  —  was  brought  to  Rome,  in  accord- 
ance with  counsels  said  to  have  been  derived  from  the  Sibylline 
oracles. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  35 

at  these  entertainments  by  the  amount  of  bodily 
pleasure  more  than  by  the  intercourse  and  conver- 
sation of  friends.  In  this  feeling,  our  ancestors 
fitly  called  the  festive  meeting  of  friends  at  table, 
as  implying  union  in  life,  a  convivial  meeting, — 
a  much  better  name  than  that  of  the  Greeks,  who 
call  such  an  occasion  sometimes  a  compotation, 
sometimes  a  social  supper,^  evidently  attaching  the 
chief  importance  to  that  which  is  of  the  least  mo- 
ment in  an  entertainment. 

XIV,  I,  indeed,  for  the  pleasure  of  conversation, 
enjoy  festive  entertainments,  even  when  they  begin 
early  and  end  late,^  and  that,  not  only  in  the  com- 
pany of  my  coevals,  of  whom  very  few  remain,  but 
with  those  of  your  age  and  with  you;  and  I  am 
heartily  thankful  to  my  advanced  years  for  increas- 
ing my  appetency  for  conversation,  and  diminishing 
my  craving  for  food  and  drink.  But  if  any  one 
takes  delight  in  the  mere  pleasures  of  the  table, 
lest  I  may  seem  utterly  hostile  to  appetites  which 

1  The  following  is  a  more  literal  rendering  of  this  passage  : 
"Our  ancestors  appropriately  named  the  reclining  together  of 
frends  at  a  banquet  convivium  [cum  and  vivo,  living  together], 
because  it  implied  a  community  of  life.  Better  they  than  the 
Greeks,  who  called  the  same  thing  sometimes  com2)otatio  [cum 
and  poto,  drinking  together],  and  sometimes  concoevxttio  [am  and 
coeno,  supping  together]."  Compotatio  and  mncoenatio  are  both 
Latin  words.  The  corresponding  Greek  words  are  av/jiirSatoy 
(whence  symposium)  and  avvStiirvoy. 

2  Latin,  tempestivis  conviviis.  Tempestiws  originally  meant 
seasonable,  thence  over  early.  It  is  often  used  to  designate  at  the 
same  time  the  over  early  and  the  over  late. 


36  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

perhaps  spring  from  a  natural  impulse,  I  would  not 
have  it  understood  that  old  age  is  not  susceptible  of 
them.  I  indeed  enjoy  the  ancestral  fashion  of  ap- 
pointing a  master  of  ceremonies  for  the  feast,^  and 
the  rules  for  drinking  announced  from  the  head  of 
the  table,  and  cups,  as  in  Xenophon's  Symposium^ 
not  over  large,  and  slowly  drunk,  and  the  cool  breeze 
for  the  dining-hall  in  summer,  and  the  winter's  sun 
or  fire.^  Even  on  my  Sabine  farm  I  keep  up  these 
customs,  and  daily  fiU  my  table  with  my  neighbors, 
prolonging  our  varied  talk  to  the  latest  possible 
hour.  But  it  is  said  that  old  men  have  less  inten- 
sity of  sensual  enjoyment.  So  I  believe  ;  but  there 
is  no  craving  for  it.  You  do  not  miss  what  you 
do  not  want.     Sophocles  very  aptly  replied,  when 

1  The  Roman  arrangements  for  a  festive  occasion  were  not 
unlike  our  own.  A  presiding  officer  —  the  host,  or  some  one 
appointed  by  him,  or  chosen  by  the  tbrow  of  dice —  called  upon 
tbe  guests  in  turn,  that  on  subjects  of  conversation  no  opinion 
might  be  lost,  and  no  guest  slighted.  He  also,  in  the  fashion 
maintained  in  England  among  convivialists  till  a  comparatively 
recent  time,  announced  the  rules  to  be  observed  in  drinking,  and 
closed  his  speech  with  the  words,  Axd  bibe,  aut  abi,  "  Either 
drink  or  go." 

2  Sv/xirSffiov,  a  dialogue  specially  designed  to  bring  out  the 
leading  traits  in  the  character  of  Socrates,  who  is  the  chief 
speaker,  and  of  value,  also,  as  grouping  the  interlocutors  at  a 
banquet,  and  thus  incidenta,lly  presenting  a  picture  of  the  eti- 
quette and  arrangements  of  an  Athenian  supper-table. 

8  It  was  not  uncommon  for  rich  Romans  to  have  both  summer 
and  winter  banqueting-rooms,  —  the  winter  room,  if  possible, 
open  to  the  full  heating  power  of  the  sun,  which  in  that  climate 
supersedes  the  necessity  of  artificial  heat. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  37 

asked  in  his  old  age  whether  he  indulged  in  sens- 
ual pleasure,  "  IMay  the  gods  do  better  for  me !  I 
rejoice  in  my  escape  from  a  savage  and  ferocious 
tyrant."  To  those  who  desire  such  pleasures  it 
may  be  offensive  and  grievous  to  be  debarred  from 
them ;  but  to  those  already  filled  and  satiated  it  is 
more  pleasant  to  lack  them  than  to  have  them. 
Though  he  does  not  lack  who  does  not  want  them, 
I  maintain  that  it  is  more  for  one's  happiness  not 
to  want  them.  But  if  young  men  take  special 
delight  in  these  pleasures,  in  the  first  place,  they 
are  very  paltry  sources  of  enjoyment,  and,  in  the 
second  place,  they  are  not  wholly  out  of  the  reach 
of  old  men,  though  it  be  in  a  restricted  measure. 
As  the  spectator  in  the  front  seat  gets  the  greater 
enjoyment  from  the  acting  of  Turpio  Ambivius,^ 
yet  those  on  the  farthest  seat  are  delighted  to  be 
there ;  so  youth,  having  a  closer  view  of  the  pleas- 
ures of  sense,  derives,  it  may  be,  more  joy  from 
them,  while  old  age  has  as  much  enjoyment  as  it 
wants  in  seeing  them  at  a  distance.  But  of  what 
immense  worth  is  it  for  the  soul  to  be  with  itself, 
to  live,  as  the  phrase  is,  with  itself,  discharged  from 
the  service  of  lust,  ambition,  strife,  enmities,  desires 
of  every  kind  !  If  one  has  some  provision  laid  up, 
as  it  were,  of  study  and  learning,  nothing  is  more 
enjoyable  than  the  leisure  of  old  age.  We  saw 
Caius  Gallus,  your  father's  friend,  Scipio,  almost  to 

1  The  most  celebrated  actor  of  his  time,  contemporaty  vnih 
Terence,  and  taking  leading  parts  in  some  of  his  plays. 


38  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

the  last  moment  occupied  in  measuring  heaven  and 
earth.  How  often  did  the  morning  light  overtake 
him  when  he  had  begun  some  problem  ^  by  night, 
and  the  night  when  he  had  begun  in  the  early 
morning !  How  did  he  delight  to  predict  to  us  far 
in  advance  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon  ! 
What  pleasure  have  old  men  taken  in  pursuits 
less  recondite,  yet  demanding  keenness  and  vigor 
of  mind !  How  did  Naevius  rejoice  in  his  Punic 
War  !  ^  Plautus  in  his  Truculentus,  —  in  his  Pseu- 
dolus  /  ^  I  saw  also  Livius  *  in  his  old  age,  who, 
having  brought  out  a  play  ^  six  years  before  I  was 
born,  in  the  consulship  of  Cento  and  Tuditanus, 
continued  before  the  public  till  I  was  almost  a 
man.  What  shall  I  say  of  the  devotion  of  Publius 
Licinius  Crassus^  to  the  study  of  pontifical  and 
civil  law?    What  of  the  similar  diligence  of  this 

1  Latin,  aliquid  describere,  probably  denoting  to  draw  a  dia- 
gram. Gallus  undoubtedly  employed  geometrical  methods  in  his 
astronomical  studies. 

^  Naevius  was  the  earliest  Roman  poet  of  enduring  reputation. 
He  wrote  both  comedies  and  tragedies,  and  in  his  old  age,  ban- 
ished to  Utica  for  libels  contained  in  his  plays,  he  produced  an 
epic  poem  on  the  first  Punic  war,  in  which  he  had  served  as  a 
soldier. 

'  Both  of  these  plays  are  extant.  They  were  probably  the 
latest  that  he  wrote. 

*  Livius  Andronicus,  earlier  than  Naevius.  His  plays  were  in 
ruder  Latin,  and  in  Cicero's  time  were  no  longer  read. 

5  Latin,  fabulam  docuisset,  i.  e.  taught  the  actors  their  parts, 
and  presided  at  the  rehearsal. 

*  He  was  both  Consul  and  pontifex  maximus. 


Cicero  de  Scnedute.  39 

Publiiis  Scipio,^  who  has  just  been  put  at  the  head 
of  the  pontifical  college  ?  We  have  seen  all  these 
whom  I  have  named  ardently  engaged  in  their  old 
age  in  their  several  departments  of  mental  labor. 
Marcus  Cethegus,^  too,  whom  Ennius  rightly  called 
the  "Marrow  of  Persuasion," — how  zealously  did 
we  see  him  exercise  himself  when  an  old  man  in 
the  art  of  speaking!  What,  then,  are  the  pleas- 
ures of  feasts,  and  games,  and  sensual  indulgence, 
compared  with  these  pleasures  ?  Indeed,  it  is  these 
intellectual  pursuits  that  for  wise  and  well-nurtured 
men  grow  with  years,  so  that  it  is  to  Solon's  honor 
that  he  says,  in  the  verse  which  I  just  now  quoted, 
that  as  he  advanced  in  age  he  learned  something 
every  day,  —  a  pleasure  of  the  mind  than  which 
there  can  be  none  greater. 

XV.  I  pass  now  to  the  pleasures  of  agriculture, 
which  give  me  inconceivable  delight,  to  which  age 
is  no  impediment,  and  in  which  one  makes  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  life  of  the  true  philosopher. 
For  the  farmer  keeps  an  open  account  with  the 

1  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  Corculum,  twice  Consul,  also  Cen- 
sor and  pontifex  maximus,  a  man  of  superior  integrity  as  well  as 
learning,  and  a  strong  conservative  as  to  manners  and  morals. 
The  surname  of  Corculum,  a  diminutive  of  cor,  was  given  him,  it 
is  said,  for  his  wisdom,  but  more  probably  for  the  combined  qual- 
ities of  mind  and  heart  that  won  for  him  the  confidence  of  the 
people. 

2  He  filled  successively  the  highest  offices  in  the  republic,  and 
was  for  many  years  poTitifex  maximiis.  Horace  refers  to  him  as 
valid  authority  for  the  use  of  words  that  were  obsolescent  when 
he  wrote; 


40  Cicero  de  Seiudute* 

earth,  which  never  refuses  a  draft,  nor  ever  returns 
what  has  been  committed  to  it  without  interest, 
and  if  sometimes  at  a  small,  generally  at  an  ample 
i-ate  of  increase.  Yet  I  am  cliarmed  not  only  with 
the  revenue,  but  witli  the  very  nature  and  proper- 
ties of  the  soil.  When  it  has  received  the  seed  into 
its  softened  and  prepared  bosom,  it  keeps  it  buried  ^ 
(whence  our  word  for  the  harrowing  ^  which  buries 
the  seed  is  derived),  then  by  its  pressure  and  by 
the  moisture  which  it  yields  it  cleaves  the  seed  and 
draws  out  from  it  the  green  shoot,  which,  sustained 
by  its  rootlet-fibres,  grows  till  it  stands  erect  on  its 
jointed  stalk,  enclosed  in  sheaths,  as  if  to  protect 
the  down  of  its  youth,  till,  emerging  from  them,  it 
yields  the  grain,  with  its  orderly  arrangement  in  the 
ear,  defended  against  predatory  birds  by  its  bearded 
rampart.  What  can  I  say  of  the  planting,  up- 
springing,  and  growth  of  vines  ?  It  is  with  insa- 
tiable delight  that  I  thus  make  known  to  you  the 
repose  and  enjoyment  of  my  old  age.  Not  to  speak 
of  the  vital  power  of  all  things  that  grow  directly 
from  the  earth,  —  which  from  so  tiny  a  fig  or  grape 
seed,  or  from  the  very  smallest  seeds  of  other 
fruits  or  plants,  produces  such  massive  trunks  and 

1  Latin,  occaecatum,  literally  blinded,  from  06  and  caecus. 

2  Latin,  occatio,  from  the  verb  occo.  There  seems  no  reason  for 
deriving  this  from  occaeco.  Cicero  is  very  apt  to  infer  derivation 
from  similarity,  and  there  are  not  a  few  tokens  of  his  carelessness 
in  this  regard.  Thus  in  different  works  of  his  he  derives  religio 
from  religo  and  relcgo,  giving  from  each  deiivation  the  definition 
that  serves  his  turn  at  the  time. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  41 

branches,  —  do  not  shoots,  scions,  quicksets,  layers, 
accomplish  results  which  no  one  can  behold  with- 
out delighted  admiration  ?  The  vine,  indeed,  droop- 
ing by  nature,  unless  supported,  is  weighed  down  to 
the  ground ;  but  to  raise  itself  it  embraces  with  its 
hand-like  tendrils  whatever  it  can  lay  hold  upon ; 
and  then,  as  it  twines  with  multifold  and  diffusive 
growth,  the  art  of  the  vine-dresser  trims  it  close 
with  the  pruning-knife,  that  it  may  not  run  unto 
useless  wood  and  spread  too  far.  Thus  in  the  early 
spring,  in  what  remains  after  the  pruning,  the  gem 
(so  called)  starts  out  at  the  joints  of  the  twigs,  from 
which  the  incipient  cluster  of  grapes  makes  its  ap- 
pearance ;  and  this,  growing  by  the  moisture  of  the 
earth  and  the  heat  of  the  sun,  is  at  first  very  sour 
to  the  taste ;  then,  as  it  ripens,  it  becomes  sweet, 
while,  clothed  with  leaves,  it  lacks  not  moderate 
warmth,  and  at  the  same  time  escapes  the  sun's 
intenser  beams.  What  can  be  more  gladdening 
than  the  fruit  of  the  vine ;  what  more  beautiful,  as 
it  hangs  ungathered  ?  I  am  charmed,  as  I  have  said, 
not  only  with  the  utility  of  the  vine,  but  equally 
with  the  whole  process  of  its  cultivation  and  with 
its  very  nature,  —  with  its  rows  of  stakes,  the  lat- 
eral supports  from  stake  to  stake,  the  tying  up  and 
training  of  the  vines,  the  amputation  of  some  of 
the  twigs,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  the  planting 
of  others.  What  can  I  tell  you  of  irrigation,  and 
of  the  repeated  digging  of  the  soil  to  make  the 
ground  more   fertile  ?     What  shall  I  say  of  the 


42  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

efficacy  of  manuring  ?  of  which  I  have  written  in 
my  book  on  Farm  Life}  but  of  w^iich  the  learned 
Hesiod,  in  writing  about  agriculture,  says  not  a 
word,  —  though  Homer,  who,  I  think,  lived  many 
generations  before  him,  introduces  Laertes  as  reliev- 
ing his  solicitude  for  his  son  by  tilling  and  manur- 
ing his  field.  Nor  is  rural  life  made  cheerful  by 
grainfields,  meadows,  vineyards,  and  shrubberies 
alone,  but  also  by  gardens  and  orchards ;  then 
again,  by  the  feeding  of  sheep,  by  swarms  of  bees, 
by  a  vast  variety  of  flowers.  Nor  does  one  take 
pleasure  merely  in  the  various  modes  of  planting, 
but  equally  in  those  of  grafting,  than  which  no 
agricultural  invention  shows  greater  skill. 

XVI.  I  could  enumerate  many  other  charms  of 
rural  life ;  but  I  feel  that  those  which  I  have  named 
have  occupied  fully  enough  of  your  time.  Pardon 
me ;  for  I  am  thoroughly  versed  in  everything  be- 
longing to  country  life,  and  old  age  is  naturally 
prolix,  nor  can  I  pretend  to  acquit  it  of  all  the 

^  De  lie  Rustica,  —  a  work  much  less  sentimental  than  a 
"  Farmer's  Almanac."  The  Cato  who  has  such  an  ajsthetic  ap- 
preciation of  the  charms  of  rural  life,  is  a  myth  of  Cicero.  Cato's 
own  book  is  a  manual  of  hard,  stern,  sometimes  brutal  economy, 
advising  the  sale  of  worn-out  cattle,  and  of  old  or  sick  slaves. 
Vendat  boves  vetulos  ....  servum  senem,  servum  morbosum,  et 
siquid  aliud  supersit,  vendat.  He  even  carries  his  niggardliness 
so  far  as  to  recommend  that,  when  a  slave  has  a  new  garment 
given  him,  the  old  shall  be  taken  from  him,  to  be  used  for 
patches.  But  Cicero  is  right  in  representing  Cato  as  wise  on  the 
subject  of  manure,  on  which,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  he  was  in 
advance,  n«t  only  of  his  own  time,  but  even  of  ours. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  43 

weaknesses  laid  to  its  charge.  With  your  leave  I 
would  add,  then,  that  Manius  Curius,  after  winning 
triumphs  over  the  Samnites,  over  the  Sabines,  over 
Pyrrhus,  spent  the  close  of  his  life  in  the  country ; 
and  when  I  look  at  his  house,  which  is  not  far  from 
mine,  I  cannot  sufficiently  admire  either  the  self- 
denying  integrity  of  the  man  himself  or  the  high 
moral  standard  of  his  time.  As  Curius  was  sitting 
by  his  hearth  the  Samnites  brought  him  a  large 
amount  of  gold,  and  he  spurned  the  bribe,  saying 
that  he  thought  it  better  than  having  gold  to  bear 
sway  over  those  who  have  gold.  Such  a  mind  can- 
not fail  to  make  a  happy  old  age.  —  But  to  return 
to  my  subject,  and  not  to  wander  from  my  own 
mode  of  life,  there  were  in  those  days  Senators,  that 
is,  as  the  name  implies,  old  men,  living  on  farms,  if 
indeed  Lucius  Quinctius  Cincinnatus  received  when 
ploughing  the  announcement  that  he  had  been 
made  Dictator,  under  whose  dictatorship  it  was 
that  Caius  Servilius  Ahala,  the  Master  of  Horse,  by 
his  order,  slew  Spurius  Maelius,  who  was  aspiring 
after  royalty.^  Curius,  too,  and  other  old  men,  were 
wont  to  be  summoned  from  their  farms  to  the  Sen- 
ate, giving  thus  to  the  messengers  who  summoned 
them  a  special  name^  derived  from  the  highways 

1  Cincinnatus  was  twice  Dictator.  It  was  to  his  first  dictator- 
ship that  he  was  called  from  the  plough  ;  in  his  second,  that  he 
ordered  the  killing  of  Spurius  Maelius. 

2  Viatores,  from  via,  a  public  highway.  This  name  was  given 
from  early  time  to  messengers  of  the  magistrates  and  of  the  courts. 


44  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

on  which  they  travelled.  Was  then  the  old  age  of 
these  men  who  found  delight  in  tilling  the  ground 
unhappy?  I  indeed  doubt  whether  there  can  be 
any  haj^pier  old  age,  taking  into  account  not  only 
the  occupation  of  agriculture  which  is  healthy  for 
every  one,  but  also  the  enjoyment  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  and  the  bountiful  supply  of  everything  that 
can  be  desired  for  the  food  of  man  and  the  worship 
of  the  gods,  so  that,  if  any  persons  have  such  crav- 
ings, we  may  come  again  into  friendly  terms  with 
the  pleasures  of  sense.  For  a  thrifty  and  industri- 
ous farmer  has  a  full  wine-cellar,  oil-cellar,  and 
larder,  and  the  whole  estate  is  rich,  abounding  in 
swine,  kids,  lambs,  fowls,  milk,  cheese,  honey.  The 
farmers  themselves  are  wont  to  call  their  garden  a 
second  stock  of  the  winter's  relishing  food.^  AU 
else  has  the  richer  zest  from  the  work  of  leisure 
time  in  fowling  and  hunting.  Why  should  I  say 
more  about  the  green  of  the  meadows,  or  the  rows 
of  trees,  or  the  beauty  of  the  vineyards  and  the 
olive  groves  ?    To  cut  the  subject  short,  nothing 

whether  their  office  was  performed  within  or  beyond  the  city 
limits.  There  may  be  other  authorities  than  Cicero's  for  the 
derivation  of  the  word  from  the  summoning  of  Senators  resident 
in  the  country  :  I  know  of  none. 

1  Latin,  siuxidiam  alteram,  Succidia  means  hacon,  and  I  can 
find  no  other  probable  meaning  for  it.  My  interpretation  of  the 
passage  is  this.  Farmers  laid  in  a  stock  of  bacon,  or  strongly 
salted  meats,  for  winter,  to  give  a  relish  to  other  food.  They 
looked  to  their  gardens  to  furnish  a  corresponding  relish  for 
summer. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  .45 

can  be  more  bountiful  for  use,  or  more  ornate  to 
the  eye,  than  a  well-cultivated  farm,  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  which  advanced  years  not  only  interpose 
no  hindrance,  but  hold  forth  invitation  and  allure- 
ment ;  for  where  can  old  age  find  more  genial 
warmth  of  sunshine  or  fire,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
more  cooling  shade  or  more  refreshing  waters  ? 
Let  others  take  for  their  own  delight  arms,  horses, 
spears,  clubs,  balls,  swimming-bouts,  and  foot-races. 
From  their  many  diversions  let  them  leave  for  us 
old  men  knuckle-bones  and  dice.^  Either  will  serve 
our  turn  ;  but  without  them  old  age  can  hardly  be 
contented, 

XVII.  Xenophon's  books  are  in  many  ways  very 
useful,  and  I  beg  you  to  continue  to  read  them. 
"With  what  a  flow  of  eloquence  does  he  praise  agri- 
culture in  that  book  of  his  about  the  care  of  one's 
estate,  called  Oeconomiciis !  ^  Still  more,  to  show 
that  there  is  nothing  so  worthy  of  a  king  as  the 
pursuits  of  agriculture,  he  introduces  in  that  book 
Socrates  as  telling  this  story  to  Critobolus.     Cyrus 

1  Latin,  talos  et  tesseras.  Talus  means  an  ankle-  or  knuckle- 
bone. The  tali  used  by  the  Romans  were  either  the  actual  bones 
of  animals,  or  imitations  of  them  in  ivory,  bronze,  or  stone.  They 
were  employed  sometimes  as  jack-stones  or  dib-stones  are  now,  in 
games  of  skill,  and  sometimes  with  the  numbers  I.,  II.,  III.,  and 
IV.  on  their  four  plane  surfaces,  in  games  of  chance.  The  tesserae 
were  cubes  of  ivory,  bone,  or  wood,  like  our  dice,  numbered  from 
one  to  six. 

.  *  OiKovofUKis,  a  work  wholly  devoted  to  the  care  of  prop- 
erty. 


46  Cicero  de  Seneduie. 

the  younger,  king  of  Persia,^  of  surpassing  genius 
and  renown,  when  Lysander,  the  Lacedaemonian,  a 
man  of  the  highest  military  reputation,^  came  to 
him  at  Sardis  to  bring  presents  from  the  confeder- 
ate states,  having  treated  Lysander  in  other  ways 
with  familiar  courtesy,  showed  him  an  enclosed 
field  planted  with  the  utmost  care.  Lysander, 
marvelling  at  the  great  height  of  the  trees,  their 
arrangement  in  ornamental  groups,^  the  ground 
thoroughly  tilled  and  free  from  weeds,  and  the  de- 
licious odors  breathing  from  the  flowers,  said  that 
he  admired,  not  only  the  care,  but  also  the  skill  of 
him  who  had  planned  and  laid  out  these  grounds. 
Cyrus  answered,  "  I  myself  laid  out  all  this  field. 
The  plan  is  mine ;  the  arrangement  is  mine,  and 
many  of  these  trees  I  planted  with  my  own  hand." 
Then  Lysander,  looking  at  his  purple  robe,  his  ele- 
gance of  person,*  and  his  Persian  ornaments  rich  in 
gold  and  precious  stones,  said,  "  Men  may  well  call 

1  This  Cyrus  was  not  a  king,  but  a  viceroy  under  his  brother, 
Artaxerxes  Mnemon. 

2  Latin,  vir  suminae  virtutis.  I  have  given  to  virtus  its  primi- 
tive military  signification.  He  was  a  brave  man  and  an  able  com- 
mander, but  cruel  and  treacherous  ;  and  it  is  hardly  possible  that 
Cicero  could  have  meant  to  ascribe  to  him  tnrtvs  in  the  ethical 
sense  in  which  he  often  uses  the  word. 

*  Latin,  diredos  in  quincuncem  ordines.  The  quincunx  was  a 
favorite  mode  of  planting  with  the  Eoman  gardeners.  The  name 
is  derived  from  the  numeral  V,  eveiy  three  trees  being  so  arranged 
as  to  form  a  V. 

*  Latin,  niiorem  corporis.  Perhaps,  but  I  think  not,  his  body 
shining  with  oil. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  47 

you  happy,  Cyrus,  since  your  fortune  corresponds 
to  your  merit."  This  fortune,  then,  old  men  can 
enjoy,  nor  does  age  preclude  our  interest  in  other 
things  indeed,  but  least  of  all  in  agriculture,  to  the 
very  last  moment  of  life.  We  have  heard  that  Mar- 
cus Valerius  Corvus  lived  to  his  hundredth  year, 
passing  the  close  of  his  life  in  the  country,  and  en- 
gaged to  the  last  in  labors  of  the  field.  There  were 
forty-six  years  between  his  first  and  his  sixth  con- 
sulship. Thus  his  term  of  public  life  lasted  the  full 
number  of  years  which  our  ancestors  accounted  as 
the  beginning  of  old  age,^  and  his  old  age  was  hap- 
pier than  middle  life,  having  more  authority  with 
less  labor.  Indeed,  the  crowning  glory  of  old  age  is 
authority.  How  great  was  this  in  Lucius  Caecilius 
Metellus !  How  great  in  Atilius  Calatinus  !  whose 
eulogy  is,  — 

"  Him  first  of  men  all  tribes  and  nations  own 
With  one  consent." 

This,  you  know,  is  the  inscription  on  his  tomb. 
He  was  rightly  held,  then,  in  the  highest  esteem, 
since  all  were  unanimous  in  his  praise.  How  great 
a  man  did  we  see  in  Publius  Crassus,  the  chief 
priest,  of  whom  I  have  just  spoken,  and  afterward 
in  Marcus  Lepidus,  invested  with  the  same  priest- 
hood !  What  shall  I  say  of  Paullus  or  of  Africa- 
nus  ?     Or  of  Maximus,^  if  I  may  name  him  again  ? 

1  In  their  forty-sixth  year  Roman  citizens  were  exempted  on 
the  score  of  age  from  liability  to  military  service. 
^  Quintus  Fabins  Maximus.     See  Sect.  X. 


48.  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

These  were  men,  not  only  in  whose  uttered  opinion, 
but  in  whose  very  nod,  dwelt  authority.  Old  age, 
especially  when  it  has  filled  offices  of  high  public 
trust,  has  so  much  authority,  that  for  this  alone  it 
is  worth  all  the  pleasures  of  youth. 

XVIII.  But  remember  that  in  all  that  I  say  I 
am  praising  the  old  age  that  has  laid  its  founda- 
tions in  youth.  Hence  follows  the  maxim  to  which 
I  once  gave  utterance  with  the  assent  of  aU  w^ho 
heard  me :  "  Wretched  is  the  old  age  which  has  to 
speak  in  its  own  defence."  White  hairs  or  wrinkles 
cannot  usurp  authority ;  but  an  early  life  well  spent 
reaps  authority  as  the  fruit  of  its  age.  Indeed,  at- 
tentions which  seem  trivial  and  conventional  are 
honorable  when  merited ;  for  instance,  being  saluted 
in  the  morning,  grasped  by  the  hand,  received  by 
the  rising  of  those  present,  escorted  to  the  Forum, 
escorted  home,  asked  for  advice,  —  customs  care- 
fully observed  with  us,  and  in  other  states  so  far  as 
good  manners  prevail.  It  is  related  that  Lysander 
the  Lacedaemonian,  of  whom  I  just  made  mention, 
used  to  say  that  Lacedaemon  was  the  best  home  for 
an  old  man,  insomuch  as  nowhere  else  was  such 
deference  paid  to  length  of  years,  or  age  held  in 
such  honor.  There  is,  indeed,  a  tradition  that 
once  in  Athens,  at  a  public  festival,  when  an  old 
Athenian  entered  the  crowded  theatre,  no  one  of  his 
fellow-citizens  made  room  for  him,  but  that,  as  he 
approached  the  place  assigned  to  the  delegates  from 
Lacedaemon,  they  all  rose  and  remained  standing 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  49 

till  the  old  man  was  seated.  "When  they  were  ap- 
plauded for  this  in  every  possible  way  by  the  whole 
assembly,  one  of  them  said,  "  The  Athenians  know 
what  is  right,  but  will  not  do  it."  Of  many  excel- 
lent usages  in  our  college  of  Augurs  none  deserves 
higher  commendation  than  this,  —  that  the  mem- 
bers give  their  opinions  in  the  order  of  age,  the 
elder  members  taking  precedence,  not  only  of  those 
who  have  held  higher  official  rank,  but  even  of 
those  who  for  the  time  being  are  at  the  head  of  the 
state.^  What  pleasures  of  body  are  then  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  prerogatives  of  authority  ?  Those 
who  have  borne  these  honors  with  due  dignity  seem 
to  me  to  have  thoroughly  performed  their  part  in 
the  drama  of  life,  and  not,  like  untrained  players,  to 
have  broken  down  in  the  last  act.  —  But  it  is  said 
that  old  men  are  morose,  and  uneasy,  and  irritable, 
and  hard  to  please ;  and  were  we  to  make  the  in- 
quiry, we  might  be  told  that  they  are  avaricious. 
But  these  are  faults  of  character,  not  of  age.  Yet 
moroseness  and  the  faults  that  I  named  with  it 
have  some  excuse,  sufficient,  not  indeed  to  justify, 
but  to  extenuate  them.  Old  men  imagine  that 
they  are  scorned,  despised,  mocked.  Then,  too, 
with  a  frail  body,  any  cause  of  vexation  is  felt 
more  keenly.     But  such  infirmities  of  temper  are 

*  The  Augurs  were  chosen  for  life,  and  did  not  lose  their  official 
rank  and  title,  even  in  case  of  disgraceful  punishment.  It  was, 
therefore,  possible  for  a  Consul  or  Censor  to  be  at  the  same  time 
an  Augur. 

4 


5(J  Cicero  de  Scnedute. 

corrected  by  good  manners  and  liberal  culture,  as 
we  may  see  in  actual  life,  as  well  as  on  the  stage  in 
the  brothers  in  the  play  of  the  AdelpM.  What 
grimness  do  we  see  in  one  of  these  brothers ;  what  a 
genial  disposition  in  the  other  !  So  it  is  in  society  ; 
for  as  it  is  not  wine  of  every  vintage,  so  it  is  not 
every  temper  that  grows  sour  with  age.  I  approve 
of  gravity  in  old  age,  so  it  be  not  excessive ;  for 
moderation  in  all  things  is  becoming :  but  for  bit- 
terness I  have  no  tolerance.  As  for  senile  avarice, 
I  do  not  understand  what  it  means ;  for  can  any- 
thing be  more  foolish  than,  in  proportion  as  there 
is  less  of  the  way  to  travel,  to  seek  the  more 
provision  for  it  ? 

XIX.  There  remains  a  fourth  reason  for  depre- 
cating old  age,  that  it  is  liable  to  excessive  solicitude 
and  distress,  because  death  is  so  near ;  and  it  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  very  far  ofiP,  0  wretched  old  man, 
not  to  have  learned  in  so  long  a  life  that  death  is 
to  be  despised  !  which  manifestly  ought  to  be  re- 
garded with  indifference  if  it  really  puts  an  end  to 
the  soul,  or  to  be  even  desired  if  at  length  it  leads 
the  soul  where  it  will  be  immortal ;  and  certainly 
there  is  no  third  possibility  that  can  be  imagined.^ 
Why  then  should  I  fear  if  after  death  I  shall  be 

1  Cicero  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  the  Stoics  of  the  earlier 
school  believed  in  the  survival  of  the  soul  after  death,  but  not  in 
its  immortality.  The  soul  was,  at  the  consummation  of  the  pres- 
ent order  of  the  universe,  to  be  reabsorbed  into  the  divine  essence 
from  which  it  emanated,  and  thus  ia  the  new  creation  that  would 
ensue  to  have  no  separate  existence. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  51 

either  not  miserable,  or  even  happy  ?  Moreover, 
who  is  so  foolish,  however  young  he  may  be,  as  to 
feel  sure  on  any  day  that  he  will  live  till  nightfall  ? 
Youth  has  many  more  chances  of  death  than  those 
of  my  age.  Young  men  are  more  liable  to  ill- 
nesses ;  they  are  more  severely  attacked  by  disease ; 
they  are  cured  with  more  difficulty.  Thus  few 
reach  old  age.  Were  it  otherwise,  affairs  would  be 
better  and  more  discreetly  managed ;  for  old  men 
have  mind  and  reason  and  practical  wisdom ;  and 
if  there  were  none  of  them,  communities  could  not 
hold  together.  But  to  return  to  impending  death, 
—  can  this  be  urged  as  a  charge  against  old  age, 
when  you  see  that  it  belongs  to  it  in  common  with 
youth  ?  I  felt  in  the  death  of  my  most  excellent 
son,^  and  equally,  Scipio,  in  that  of  your  brothers,^ 
who  were  born  to  the  expectation  of  the  highest 
honors,  that  death  is  common  to  all  ages.  But,  it 
is  said,  the  young  man  hopes  to  live  long,  while  the 

1  Marcus  Porcius  Cato  Licinianus.  He  was  Cato's  only  son  by 
his  first  marriage.  He  had  reached  middle  life,  and  died  but  a 
few  years  before  his  father.  He  was  a  man  of  high  character,  had 
become  eminent  as  a  jurist,  and  was  praetor  elect  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  His  father  pronounced  his  eulogy  at  his  funeral,  which 
was  conducted  at  the  lowest  possible  rate  of  expense,  on  the  plea 
of  poverty,  which  the  father's  miserly  disposition  probably  justi- 
fied to  his  own  consciousness. 

2  Two  sons  of  Aemilius  PauUus,  who  died  at  the  ages  of  twelve 
and  fifteen,  one  just  before,  the  other  shortly  after  their  father's 
triumph  over  Perseus.  As  his  two  elder  sons  had  become  by 
adoption  members  of  other  families,  he  was  left  without  legal 
heir  or  successor. 


52  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

old  man  can  have  no  such  hope.  The  hope,  at  any 
rate,  is  unwise;  for  what  is  more  foolish  than  to 
take  things  uncertain  for  certain,  false  for  true  ?  Is 
it  urged  that  the  old  man  has  absolutely  nothing 
to  hope  ?  For  that  very  reason  he  is  in  a  better 
condition  than  the  young  man,  because  what  the 
youth  hopes  he  has  already  obtained.  The  oue 
wishes  to  live  long;  the  other  has  lived  long. 
Yet,  ye  good  gods,  what  is  there  in  man's  life  that 
is  long  ?  Grant  the  very  latest  term  of  life  ;  sup- 
pose that  we  expect  to  reach  the  age  of  the  king 
of  Tartessus.^  For  it  is  on  record  that  a  certain 
Arganthonius,  who  reigned  eighty  years  in  Gades, 
lived  to  the  age  of  a  hundred  and  twenty.  But  to 
me  no  life  seems  long  that  has  any  end.  For  when 
the  end  comes,  then  that  which  has  passed  has 
flowed  away;  that  alone  remains  which  you  have 
won  by  virtue  and  by  a  good  life.  Hours,  indeed, 
and  days,  and  months,  and  years,  glide  by,  nor  does 
the  past  ever  return,  nor  yet  can  it  be  known  what 
is  to  come.  Each  one  should  be  content  with  such 
time  as  it  is  allotted  to  him  to  live.  In  order  to  give 
pleasure  to  the  audience,  the  actor  need  not  finish 

1  A  region  in  the  southwest  comer  of  Spain,  supposed,  not  un- 
reasonably, to  be  the  Tarshish  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  Its 
chief  city  was  Gades  (a  plural  form,  including  adjacent  islands), 
or  Gadis,  known  in  modern  geography  by  the  slightly  altered 
name  of  Cadiz.  This  city  was  the  seat  of  a  very  ancient  Phoeni- 
cian colony.  The  longevity  of  Arganthonius  is  mentioned  by 
several  writers,  who  do  not  agree  as  to  his  ago.  Pliny  says  that 
he  lived  a  hundred  and  thirty  years. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  55 

the  play ;  he  may  win  approval  in  whatever  act  he 
takes  part  in;  nor  need  the  wise  man  remain  on 
the  stage  till  the  closing  plaudit.  A  brief  time  is 
long  enough  to  live  well  and  honorably;^  but  if 
you  live  on,  you  have  no  more  reason  to  mourn 
over  your  advancing  years,  than  the  farmers  have, 
when  the  sweet  days  of  spring  are  past,  to  lament 
the  coming  of  summer  and  of  autumn.  Spring 
typifies  youth,  and  shows  the  fruit  that  will  be ; 
the  rest  of  life  is  fitted  for  reaping  and  gathering 
the  fruit.  Moreover,  the  fruit  of  old  age  is,  as  I 
have  often  said,  the  memory  and  abundance  of 
goods  previously  obtained.  But  all  things  that  oc- 
cur according  to  nature  are  to  be  reckoned  as  goods ; 
and  what  is  so  fully  according  to  nature  as  for  old 
men  to  die  ?  while  the  same  thing  happens  to  the 
young  with  the  opposition  and  repugnancy  of  na- 
ture. Thus  young  men  seem  to  me  to  die  as  when 
a  fierce  flame  is  extinguished  by  a  stream  of  water ; 
while  old  men  die  as  when  a  spent  fire  goes  out  of 
its  own  accord,  without  force  employed  to  quench 
it.  Or,  as  apples,  if  unripe,  are  violently  wrenched 
from  the  tree,  while,  mature  and  ripened,  they  fall, 
so  force  takes  life  from  the  young,  maturity  from 
the  old;  and  this  ripeness  of  old  age  is  to  me  so 

1  "Honorable  age  is  not  that  which  standeth  in  length  of 
time,  or  that  is  measured  by  number  of  years.     But  wisdom  is  the 

gray  hair  unto  men,  and  an  unspotted  life  is  old  age He, 

being  made  perfect  in  a  short  time,  fulfilled  a  long  time."  —  WiS' 
dom  of  Solomon,  iv.  8,  9,  14. 


64  Cicero  cle  Senectute. 

pleasant,  that,  in  proportion  as  I  draw  near  to  death, 
I  seem  to  see  land,  and  after  a  long  voyage  to  be  on 
the  point  of  entering  the  harbor. 

XX,  The  close  of  other  ages  is  definitely  fixed ;  ^ 
but  old  age  has  no  fixed  term,  and  one  may  fitly 
live  in  it  so  long  as  he  can  observe  and  discharge 
the  duties  of  his  station,  and  yet  despise  death. 
Old  age,  fearless  of  death,  may  transcend  youth  in 
courage  and  in  fortitude.  Such  is  the  meaning  of 
Solon's  answer  to  the  tyrant  Pisistratus,  who  asked 
him  what  was  his  ground  of  confidence  in  resisting 
him  so  boldly,  and  Solon  replied,  "  Old  age."  But 
the  most  desirable  end  of  life  is  when  —  the  under- 
standing and  the  other  faculties  unimpaired  —  Na- 
ture, who  put  together,  takes  apart  her  own  work. 
As  he  who  built  a  ship  or  a  house  can  take  it  to 
pieces  the  most  easily,  so  Nature,  who  compacted 
the  human  frame,  is  the  best  agent  for  its  dissolu- 
tion. Then,  again,  whatever  has  been  recently  put 
together  is  torn  apart  with  difficulty;  old  fabrics, 
easily.  Thus  what  brief  remainder  there  may  be 
of  life  ought  to  be  neither  greedily  sought  by  old 
men,  nor  yet  abandoned  without  cause,^  and  Py- 
thagoras forbids  one  to  desert  the  garrison  and  post 
of  life  without  the  order  of  the  commander,  that  is, 

1  CMldliood  legally  terminated  at  seventeen,  youth  at  forty- 
six  ;  then  old  age  began. 

2  The  Stoics  generally  maintained  the  lawfulness  of  suicide 
for  suJfficieTU  cause,  and  Cicero  more  than  intimates  this  as  his 
opinion.  Pythagoras,  and  Socrates,  as  reported  by  Plato,  utterly 
condemned  it. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  55 

God.  There  are  extant,  indeed,  verses  of  Solon  the 
Wise,^  in  which  he  says  that  he  does  not  want  to 
die  without  the  grief  and  lamentation  of  his  friends, 
desiring,  as  I  suppose,  to  be  held  dear  by  those  in 
intimate  relation  with  him ;  but  I  am  inclined  to 
prefer  what  Ennius  writes, — 

"  Let  no  one  honor  me  with  tears,  or  make 
A  lamentation  at  my  funeral." 

He  thinks  that  death  is  not  to  be  mourned,  since  it 
is  followed  by  immortality.  There  may  be,  indeed, 
some  painful  sensation  in  dying,  yet  for  only  a  little 
while,  especially  for  the  old;  after  death  there  is 
either  desirable  sensation  or  none  at  all.  But  such 
thoughts  as  this  ought  to  be  familiar  to  us  from 
youth,  that  we  may  make  no  account  of  death. 
Without  such  habits  of  thought  one  cannot  be  of  a 
tranquil  mind ;  for  it  is  certain  that  we  must  die, 
and  it  is  uncertain  whether  it  be  not  this  very  pass- 
ing day.  How  then  can  one  be  composed  in  mind 
while  he  fears  death,  which  impends  over  him  every 
hour  ?  On  this  subject  there  seems  no  need  of  a  long 
discussion,  when  I  recall  to  memory,  —  not  Lucius 
Brutus,  who  was  slain  in  setting  his  country  free ; 
not  the  two  Decii,  spurring  their  horses  to  a  death 
of  their  own  choice;  not  Marcus  Atilius,  returning 
to  the  punishment  of  death  that  he  might  keep 
faith  with  an  enemy ;  not  the  two  Scipios,  who 
wanted  to  block  the  way  for  the  Carthaginians  even 

1  Solon  was  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece. 


56  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

with  their  own  bodies  ;  not  your  grandfather,  Lu- 
cius Paulkis,  who  yielded  up  his  life  to  expiate  his 
colleague's  rashness  in  the  ignominious  battle  of 
Cannae;  not  Marcus  Marcellus,  whose  body  not 
even  the  most  cruel  of  enemies  would  suffer  to 
lack  the  honor  of  a  funeral,^  —  but  our  legions, 
often  going,  as  I  have  said  in  my  History^  with  a 
firm  and  cheerful  mind,  to  scenes  of  peril  whence 
they  expected  never  to  return.  Shall  well-trained 
old  men,  then,  fear  what  youth,  and  they  not  only 
untrained,  but  even  fresh  from  the  country,  de- 
spise ?  —  In  fine,  satiety  of  life,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
creates  satiety  of  pursuits  of  every  kind.  There  are 
certain  pursuits  belonging  to  boyhood ;  do  grown- 
up young  men  therefore  long  for  them  ?  There  are 
others  appertaining  to  early  youth;  are  they  re- 
quired in  the  sedate  period  of  life  which  we  call 
middle  age  ?  This,  too,  has  its  own  pursuits,  and 
they  are  not  sought  in  old  age.  As  the  pursuits  of 
earlier  periods  of  life  fail,  so  in  like  manner  do 
those  of  old  age.  When  this  period  is  reached, 
satiety  of  life  brings  a  season  ripe  for  death. 

XXI.  I  see,  indeed,  no  reason  why  I  should 
hesitate  to  tell  you  how  I  myself  feel  about  death ; 
for  I  seem  to  have  a  clearer  view  of  it,  the  nearer 
I  approach  it.     My  belief  is  that  your  father,  Pub- 

1  The  names  and  incidents  here  enumerated  and  referred  to  are 
too  familiar  to  the  readers  of  Roman  history  to  require  special 
notice. 

'  Origines. 


Cicero  de  Senedute.  57 

lius  Scipio,  and  yours,  Caius  Laelius,  men  of  the 
highest  renown  and  my  very  dear  friends,  are  liv- 
ing, and  are  living  the  only  life  that  truly  deserves 
to  be  called  life.  Indeed,  while  we  are  shut  up  in 
this  prison  of  the  body,  we  are  performing  a  heavy 
task  laid  upon  us  by  necessity;  for  the  soul,  of 
celestial  birth,  is  forced  down  from  its  supremely 
high  abode,  and,  as  it  were,  plunged  into  the  earth, 
a  place  uncongenial  with  its  divine  nature  and  its 
eternity.  I  believe,  indeed,  that  the  gods  dissemi- 
nated souls,  and  planted  them  in  human  bodies,  that 
there  might  be  those  who  should  hold  the  earth  in 
charge,  and  contemplating  the  order  of  celestial 
beings,  should  copy  it  in  symmetry  and  harmony 
of  life.  I  was  led  to  this  belief,  not  only  by  rea- 
son and  argument,  but  by  the  pre-eminent  author- 
ity of  the  greatest  philosophers.  I  learned  that 
Pythagoras  and  the  Pythagoreans,  almost  our  fel- 
low-country men,^  who  used  to  be  called  Italian 
philosophers,  never  doubted  that  we  had  souls  that 
emanated  from  the  universal  divine  mind.  I  was 
impressed,  also,  by  what  Socrates,  whom  the  oracle 
of  Apollo  pronounced  the  wisest  of  men,  taught 
■with  regard  to  the  immortality  of  souls,  on  the  last 

1  Pythagoras  was  probably  a  native  of  Samos,  but  after  exten- 
eive  travel  in  the  East  established  himself  and  gathered  disciples 
at  Crotona,  a  city  founded  by  Greek  colonists  in  Magna  Graecia,  or 
Southern  Italy.  Hence  his  followers  bore  the  name  of  the  Italian 
or  Italic  school,  the  only  school  of  philosophy,  it  is  believed, 
that  ever  seemed  indigenous  —  though  this  not  native  —  in  Italian 
8oiL 


58  Cicero  de  Senedute. 

day  of  his  life.  Why  should  I  say  more  ?  So  have 
I  convinced  myself,  so  I  feel,  that  since  such  is  the 
rapid  movement  of  souls,  such  their  memory  of 
the  past  and  foresight  of  the  future,  so  many  are 
the  arts,  so  profound  the  sciences,  so  numerous  the 
inventions  to  which  they  have  given  birth,  the  na- 
ture which  contains  all  these  tilings  cannot  be  mor- 
tal ;  that  as  the  soul  is  always  active,  and  has  no 
prime  cause  of  motion  inasmuch  as  it  puts  itself  in 
motion,  so  it  can  have  no  end  of  motion,  because 
it  can  never  abandon  itself;  moreover,  that  since 
the  nature  of  the  soul  is  un compounded,  and  has  in 
itself  no  admixture  of  aught  that  is  unequal  to  or 
unlike  itself,  it  is  indivisible,  and  if  so,  is  imperish- 
able ;  and  that  there  is  strong  reason  for  believing 
that  men  know  a  great  deal  before  they  are  born  in 
the  ease  with  which  boys  learn  difficult  arts,  and 
the  rapidity  with  which  they  seize  upon  innumer- 
able things,  so  that  they  seem  not  to  be  receiving 
them  for  the  first  time,  but  to  be  recalling  and  re- 
membering them.  This  is  the  sum  of  w^hat  I  have 
from  Plato.^ 

XXII.  In  Xenophon's  narrative,^  the  elder  Cy- 
rus says  in  dying :  "  Do  not  imagine,  my  beloved 
sons,  that  when  I  go  from  you  I  shall  be  nowhere, 
or  shall  cease  to  be.  For  while  I  was  with  you, 
you  did  not  see  my  soul ;  but  you  inferred  its  exist- 

1  A  synopsis  of  the  argument  for  immortality  given,  as  in  the 
words  of  Socrates,  in  Plato's  Phaedon. 

2  The  Cyropaedia. 


Cicero  de  Seneciute.  59 

ence  from  the  things  which  I  did  in  this  body. 
Believe  then  that  I  am  the  same  being,  even  though 
you  do  not  see  me  at  all.  The  fame  of  illustrious 
men  would  not  remain  after  their  death,  if  the  souls 
of  those  men  did  nothing  to  perpetuate  their  mem- 
ory. Indeed,  I  never  could  be  persuaded  that  souls 
live  while  they  are  in  mortal  bodies  and  die  when 
they  depart  from  them,  nor  yet  that  the  soul  be- 
comes void  of  wisdom  on  leaving  a  senseless  body  ; 
but  I  have  believed  that  when,  freed  from  all  corpo- 
real mixture,  it  begins  to  be  pure  and  entire,  it  then 
is  wise.  Moreover,  when  the  constitution  of  man 
is  dissolved  by  death,  it  is  obvious  what  becomes  of 
each  of  the  other  parts ;  for  they  all  go  whence 
they  came :  but  the  soul  alone  is  invisible,  alike 
when  it  is  present  in  the  body  and  when  it  departs. 
You  see  nothing  so  nearly  resembling  death  as 
sleep.  Now  in  sleep  souls  most  clearly  show  their 
divineness ;  ^  for  when  they  are  thus  relaxed  and 
free,  they  foresee  the  future.  From  this  we  may 
understand  what  they  will  be  when  they  have  en- 
tirely released  themselves  from  the  bonds  of  the 
body.  Therefore,  if  these  things  are  so,  reverence 
me  as  a  divine  being.^  If,  however,  the  soul  is 
going  to  perish  with  the  body,  you  still,  revering 

1  Latin,  divinUatem  suam. 

2  Latin,  sic  me  coUtote,  ut  deum,  referring,  as  I  suppose,  not 
to  an  apotheosis  after  the  manner  of  the  Roman  Emperors,  but  to 
the  divineness  (dimnitas)  ascribed  to  the  soul  in  prescient  dreams, 
which,  as  has  just  been  said,  prefigure  what  the  soul  will  become 
in  dying. 


60  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

the  gods  who  protect  and  govern  all  this  beautiful 
universe,  will  keep  my  memory  in  pious  and  in- 
violate regard."^ 

XXIII.  Such  were  the  last  words  of  Cyrus. 
Let  me  now,  if  it  seem  good  to  you,  express  my 
own  opinion  and  feeling.  No  one  will  ever  con- 
vince me,  Scipio,  that  your  father  PauUus,  or  your 
two  grandfathers,  Paullus  and  Africanus,  or  the 
father  or  the  uncle  of  Africanus,  or  many  men  of 
surpassing  excellence  whom  I  need  not  name, 
undertook  such  noble  enterprises  which  M'ere  to 
belong  to  the  grateful  remembrance  of  posterity, 
without  a  clear  perception  that  posterity  belonged 
to  them.  Or  think  you,  —  if  after  the  manner  of 
old  men  I  may  boast  a  little  on  my  own  account,  — 
think  you  that  I  would  have  taken  upon  myself 
such  a  vast  amount  of  labor,  by  day  and  by  night, 
at  home  and  in  military  service,  if  I  had  been  going 
to  put  the  same  limits  to  my  fame  that  belong  to 
my  earthly  life  ?  Would  it  not  have  been  much 
better  to  pass  my  time  in  leisure  and  quiet,  remote 
from  toil  and  strife  ?  But  somehow  my  soul,  rais- 
ing itself^  above  the  present,  was  always  looking 
onward  to  posterity,  as  if,  when  it  departed  from 
life,  then  at  length  it  would  truly  live.     But  unless 

1  This  is  not  a  literal  translation  from  Xenophon,  nor  can  it 
have  been  intended  for  one.  Cicero  meant  to  give  it  in  the  form 
in  which  Cato  might  have  been  supposed  to  quote  it  from 
memory. 

'  Latin,  aese  erigens  ....  prospiciebat.  The  figure  implies 
standing,  as  it  were,  on  tiptoe,  to  get  a  clearer  distant  view. 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  61 

souls  were  indeed  immortal,  men's  souls  would  not 
strive  for  undying  fame  in  proportion  to  their  tran- 
scending merit.  What  ?  Since  men  of  the  highest 
wisdom  die  with  perfect  calmness,  those  who  are 
the  most  foolish  with  extreme  disquiet,  can  you 
doubt  that  the  soul  which  sees  more  and  farther 
perceives  that  it  is  going  to  a  better  state,  while 
the  soul  of  obtuser  vision  has  no  view  beyond 
death  ?  For  my  part,  I  am  transported  with  desire 
to  see  your  fathers  whom  I  revered  and  loved; 
nor  yet  do  I  long  to  meet  those  only  whom  I  have 
known,  but  also  those  of  whom  I  have  heard  and 
read,  and  about  whom  I  myself  have  written. 
Therefore  one  could  not  easily  turn  me  back  on 
my  lifeway,  nor  would  I  willingly,  like  Pelias,^  be 
plunged  in  the  rejuvenating  caldron.  Indeed,  were 
any  god  to  grant  that  from  my  present  age  I  might 
go  back  to  boyhood,  or  become  a  crying  child  in  the 
cradle,  I  should  steadfastly  refuse ;  nor  would  I  be 
willing,  as  from  a  finished  race,  to  be  summoned 
back  from  the  goal  to  the  starting-point.  For  what 
advantage  is  there  in  life  ?  Or  rather,  what  is  there 
of  arduous  toil  that  is  wanting  to  it  ?  But  grant 
all  that  you  may  in  its*  favor,  it  still  certainly  has 
either  its  excess  or  its  fit  measure  of  duration.  I 
am  not,  indeed,  inclined  to  speak  ill  of  life,  as  many 
and  even  wise  men  have  often  done,  nor  am  I  sorry 

1  The  myth,  as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  represents  Aeson  as 
the  old  man  whom  magic  arts  made  young  again,  while  the  like 
experiment  on  Pelias  was  a  disastrous  failure. 


62  Cicero  de  Senectute. 

to  have  lived ;  for  I  have  so  lived  that  I  do  not 
think  that  I  was  born  to  no  purpose.  Yet  I  depart 
from  life,  as  from  an  inn,  not  as  from  a  home  ;  for 
nature  has  given  us  here  a  lodging  for  a  sojourn, 
not  a  place  of  habitation.  0  glorious  day,  when  I 
shall  go  to  that  divine  company  and  assembly  of 
souls,  and  when  I  shall  depart  from  this  crowd  and 
tumult !  I  shall  go,  not  only  to  the  men  of  whom 
I  have  already  spoken,  but  also  to  my  Cato,  than 
whom  no  better  man  was  ever  born,  nor  one  who 
surpassed  him  in  filial  piety,  whose  funeral  pile  I 
lighted,  —  the  office  which  he  should  have  per- 
formed for  me,  —  but  whose  soul,  not  leaving  me, 
but  looking  back  upon  me,  has  certainly  gone  into 
those  regions  whither  he  saw  that  I  should  come  to 
him.  This  my  calamity  I  seemed  to  bear  bravely. 
Not  that  I  endured  it  with  an  untroubled  mind ;  but 
I  was  consoled  by  the  thought  that  there  would  be 
between  us  no  long  parting  of  the  way  and  divided 
life.  For  these  reasons,  Scipio,  as  you  have  said 
that  you  and  Laelius  have  observed  with  wonder, 
old  age  sits  lightly  upon  me.  Not  only  is  it  not 
burdensome ;  it  is  even  pleasant.  But  if  I  err  in 
believing  that  the  souls  of  men  are  immortal,  I  am 
glad  thus  to  err,  nor  am  I  willing  that  this  error  in 
which  I  delight  shall  be  wrested  from  me  so  long  as 
I  live ;  while  if  in  death,  as  some  paltry  philoso- 
phers^ think,  I  shall  have  no  consciousness,  the 

1  The  Epicureans,  whose  grovelling  philosophy  Cicero  never 
loses  an  opportunity  of  assailing  or  decrying.     This  essay,  it  will 


Cicero  de  Senectute.  63 

dead  philosophers  cannot  ridicule  this  delusion  of 
mine.  But  if  we  are  not  going  to  be  immortal,  it 
is  yet  desirable  for  man  to  cease  living  in  his  due 
time;  for  nature  has  its  measure,  as  of  all  other 
things,  so  of  life.  Old  age  is  the  closing  act  of  life, 
as  of  a  drama,  and  we  ought  in  this  to  avoid  utter 
weariness,  especially  if  the  act  has  been  prolonged 
beyond  its  due  length.  —  I  had  these  things  to  say 
about  old  age,  which  I  earnestly  hope  that  you  may 
reach,  so  that  you  can  verify  by  experience  what 
you  have  heard  from  me.  ^ 

be  remembered,  is  dedicated  to  Atticus,  who  professed  to  belong 
to  the  Epicurean  school,  but  whose  opinions  sat  so  lightly  upon 
him  that  he  was  not  likely  to  take  offence  at  their  being  im- 
pugned or  ridiculed. 


INDEX. 


Agriculture,  pleasures  of,  39. 
Appius  Claudius,  old  age  of,  12,  27. 
Aristo  of  Chios,  treatise  of,  on  old  age,  3. 
Atticus,  Titus  Pomponius,  parentage  of,  xvi. 

character  of,  xvii. 

manners  of,  xviii. 

learning  of,  xviii. 
Augurs,  respect  of  the,  for  old  age,  49. 
Authority  of  old  age,  49. 

Cato,  Marcus  Porcius,  character  of,  xxi. 

estimate  of,  by  Livy,  xxii. 

mode  of  living  of,  xxiiL 

military  career  of,  xxiv, 

conduct  of,  as  Censor,  xxv. 

litigious  habits  of,  xxvi. 

literary  culture  of,  xxvii. 

the  De  Re  Kustica  of,  xxvii. 

vigor  in  old  age  of,  14,  28. 

learning  Greek  in  old  age,  20. 

enjoying  moderate  festivities,  34. 
Cicero,  how  situated  when  this  treatise  was  written,  viiL 

correspondence  of,  with  Atticus,  xix. 
Cincinnatus,  called  from  the  plough,  43. 
Corvus,  Manius,  old  age  of,  47. 
Cyrus  the  elder,  last  words  of,  60. 
Cyrus  the  younger,  horticulture  of,  45. 

5 


66  Index. 

Death,  fear  of,  50. 

impending  over  the  young  as  well  as  the  old,  51. 
natural  and  easy  in  old  age,  54. 
examples  of  the  contempt  of,  55. 
De  Senedute,  the,  when  written,  v. 

referred  to  in  Cicero's  other  works,  vi. 
sources  of,  vii. 

Eunius,  quoted,  1. 

old  age  of,  11. 
Epicurus,  as  described  by  Cineas,  32» 

Fabius  Maximus,  old  age  of,  8. 
Farm  life,  charms  of,  43. 

suited  to  old  age,  44. 
Flamininus,  Lucius,  flagitious  conduct  of,  31. 

Gorgias,  old  age  of,  11. 
Grain  fields,  beauty  of,  40. 

Immortality,  reasons  for,  56. 

hope  of,  60. 
Irritability,  alleged,  of  old  age,  49. 
Isocrates,  old  age  of,  11. 

Laelius,  Caius,  character  of,  xxviii. 

writings  of,  xxix. 
Livy,  character  of  Cato  by,  xxii. 

Massinissa,  vigorous  old  age  of,  25. 
Memory,  not  necessarily  impaired  by  age,  16 

Occatio,  derivation  of,  40  n. 

Old  age,  said  to  creep  on  one  insidiously,  4. 

alleged  evils  of,  chargeable  to  character,  6. 

does  not  cut  one  off  from  the  management  of  affairs,  12. 

bodily  strength  often  unimpaired  by,  20. 

to  be  actively  resisted,  26. 

said  to  lack  the  pleasures  of  sense,  29. 

compatible  with  intellectual  activity,  37. 


Index.  67 

Plato,  old  age  of,  11. 

argument  of,  for  immortality,  58. 
Pythagoras,  belief  of,  in  immortality,  57. 

Scipio  Africanus  Minor,  military  career  of,  xxx. 

conduct  of,  as  Censor,  xxxi. 
death  of,  xxxi, 
Sophocles,  mental  vigor  of,  in  old  age,  17. 

rejoicing  in  freedom  from  the  tyranny  of  appetite,  36. 
Succidia,  meaning  of,  44  n. 

Tali,  45  n. 
Tesserae,  45  n. 

Vines,  beauty  of,  41. 
Viatores,  derivation  of,  43  n. 

Xenophon,  books  of,  commended,  45. 

story  of  Cyrus  the  younger,  from  the  Oeconomicus  of, 

46. 
last  words  of  Cyrus  the  elder,  from  the  Cyropaedia  of. 

58. 


CICERO    DE   AMICITIA 

(ON  FRIENDSHIP) 

AND 

SCIPIO'S    DREAM. 

TRANSLATED 

WITH 

AN    INTRODUCTION    AND    NOTES. 


By  ANDREW  P.  PEABODY. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,   AND   COMPANY. 

1887. 


Copyright,  1884, 
By  Andrew  P.   Peabodt. 


ta[nibtre{ttr  59rtS8: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  CAMBRiDaB. 


SYNOPSIS. 


DE  AMICITIA. 

§  1.  Introduction. 

2.  Reputation  of  Laelius  for  wisdom.     The  curiosity  to 

know  how  he  bore  the  death  of  Scipio. 

3.  His  grounds  of  consolation  in  his  bereavement. 

4.  He  expresses  his  faith  in  immortality.     Desires  per- 

petual memory  in  this  world  of  the  friendship  be- 
tween himself  and  Scipio. 

5.  True  friendship  can  exist  only  among  good  men. 

6.  Friendship  defined. 

7.  Benefits  derived  from  friendship. 

8.  Friendship  founded  not  on  need,  but  on  nature. 

9.  The  relation  of  utility  to  friendship. 

10.  Causes  for  the  separation  of  friends. 

11.  How  far  love  for  friends  may  go. 

12.  Wrong  never  to  be  done  at  a  friend's  request. 

13.  Theories  that  degrade  friendship. 

14.  How  friendships  are  formed. 

15.  Friendlessness  wretched. 

16.  The  limits  of  friendship. 

17.  In  what  sense  and  to  what  degree  friends  are  united. 

How  friends  are  to  be  chosen  and  tested, 

18.  The  qualities  to  be  sought  in  a  friend. 

19.  Old  friends  not  to  be  forsaken  for  new. 

20.  The  duties  of  friendship  between  persons  differing  in 

ability,  rank,  or  position. 


iv  Synopsis. 

§  21.  How  friendships  should  be  dissolved,  and  how  to  guard 
against  the  necessity  of  dissolving  them. 

22.  Unreasonable  expectations  of  friends.     Mutual  respect 

necessary  in  true  friendship. 

23.  Friendship  necessary  for  all  men. 

24.  Truth-telling,  though  it  often  gives  offence,  an  essential 

duty  from  friend  to  friend. 

25.  The  power  of  truth.     The  arts  of  flattery. 

26.  Flattery  availing  only  with  the  feeble-minded. 

27.  Virtue  the  soul  of  friendship.     Laelius  describes  the 

intimacy  of   the  friendship    between  himself  and 
Scipio. 


SCIPIO'S   DREAM. 

§  1.  Scipio's  visit  to  Masinissa.    Circumstances  under  which 
the  dream  occurred. 

2.  Appearance  of    the  elder  Africanus,  and  of  his  own 

father,  to  Scipio.  Prophecy  of  Scipio's  successes 
and  honors,  with  an  intimation  of  his  death  by  the 
hands  of  his  kindred. 

3.  Conditions  on  which  heaven  may  be  won. 

4.  The  nine  spheres  that  constitute  the  imiverse. 

5.  The  music  of  the  spheres. 

6.  The  five  zones  of  the  earth. 

7.  Brevity  and  worthlessness  of  earthly  fame. 

8.  All  souls  eternal. 

9.  The  soul  to  be  trained  for  immortality.     The  fate  of 

those  who  merge  their  souls  in  sense. 


INTRODUCTION. 


DE  AMICITIA. 

The  Be  Amicitia,  inscribed,  like  the  Be  Senecfute, 
to  Atticus,  was  probably  written  early  in  the  year 
44  B.  c,  during  Cicero's  retirement,  after  the  death 
of  Julius  Caesar  and  before  the  conflict  with  Antony. 
The  subject  had  been  a  favorite  one  with  Greek 
philosophers,  from  whom  Cicero  always  borrowed 
largely,  or  rather,  whose  materials  he  made  fairly 
his  own  by  the  skill,  richness,  and  beauty  of  his 
elaboration.  Some  passages  of  this  treatise  were 
evidently  suggested  by  Plato ;  and  Aulus  Gellius 
says  that  Cicero  made  no  little  use  of  a  now  lost 
essay  of  Theophrastus  on  Friendship. 

In  this  work  I  am  especially  impressed  by  Cice- 
ro's dramatic  power.  But  for  the  mediocrity  of  his 
poetic  genius,  he  might  have  won  pre-eminent  honor 
from  the  Muse  of  Tragedy.  He  here  so  thoroughly 
enters  into  the  feelings  of  Laelius  with  reference  to 
Scipio's  death,  that  as  we  read  we  forget  that  it  is 
not  Laelius  himself  who  is  speaking.  We  find  our- 
selves in  close  sympathy  with  him,  as  if  he  were  tell- 
ing us  the  story  of  his  bereavement,  giving  utterance 


vi  Introduction. 

to  his  manly  fortitude  and  resignation,  and  portray- 
ing his  friend's  virtues  from  the  unfading  image 
phototyped  on  his  own  loving  memory.  In  other 
matters,  too,  Cicero  goes  back  to  the  time  of  Laelius, 
and  assumes  his  point  of  view,  assigning  to  him  just 
the  degree  of  foresight  which  he  probably  possessed, 
and  making  not  the  slightest  reference  to  the  very 
different  aspect  in  which  he  himself  had  learned  to 
regard  and  was  wont  to  represent  the  personages  and 
events  of  that  earlier  period.  Thus,  while  Cicero 
traced  the  downfall  of  the  republic  to  changes  in  the 
body  politic  that  had  taken  place  or  were  imminent 
and  inevitable  when  Scipio  died,  he  makes  Laelius 
perceive  only  a  slight  though  threatening  deflection 
from  what  had  been  in  the  earlier  time.^  So  too, 
though  Cicero  was  annoyed  more  than  by  almost 
any  other  characteristic  of  his  age  by  the  prevalence 
of  the  Epicurean  philosophy,  and  ascribed  to  it  in  a 
very  large  degree  the  demoralization  of  men  in  pub- 
lic life,  with  Laelius  the  doctrines  of  this  school  are 
represented,  as  they  must  have  been  in  fact,  as  new 
and  unfamiliar.  In  fine,  Laelius  is  here  made  to 
say  not  a  word  which  he,  being  the  man  that  he 
was,  and  at  the  date  assumed  for  this  dialogue, 
might  not  have  said  himself;  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  a  report  of  one  of  his  actual  conversations 
would  have  seemed  more  truly  genuine. 

This  is  a  rare  gift,  often  sought  indeed,  yet  sought 
in  vain,  not  only  by  dramatists,  who  have  very 

^  DcJlexUjam  aliquaiUulum, 


Introdiiction.  vii 

seldom  attained  it,  but  by  authors  of  a  very  great 
diversity  of  type  and  culture.  One  who  undertakes 
to  personate  a  character  belonging  to  an  age  not 
his  own  hardly  ever  fails  of  manifest  anachronisms. 
The  author  finds  it  utterly  impossible  to  fit  the  an- 
tique mask  so  closely  as  not  now  and  then  to  show 
through  its  chinks  his  own  more  modern  features ; 
while  this  form  of  internal  evidence  never  fails  to  be- 
tray an  intended  forgery,  however  skilfully  wrought. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  surer  proof  of  the 
genuineness  of  a  work  purporting  to  be  of  an 
earlier,  but  alleged  to  be  of  a  later  origin,  than  the 
absence  of  all  tokens  of  a  time  subsequent  to  the 
earliest  date  claimed  for  it.^ 

In  connection  with  this  work  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  special  duties  of  friendship  constituted 
an  essential  department  of  ethics  in  the  ancient 
world,  and  that  the  relation  of  friend  to  friend  was 
regarded  as  on  the  same  plane  with  that  of  brother 
to  brother.  No  treatise  on  morals  would  have  been 
thought  complete,  had  this  subject  been  omitted. 
Not  a  few  modern  writers  have  attempted  the  for- 
mal treatment  of  friendship  ;  but  while  the  relation 

1  Thus  among  the  many  proofs  of  the  genuineness  of  our  canon- 
ical Gospels,  perhaps  none  is  more  conclusive  than  the  fact  that, 
though  evidently  wTitten  by  unskilled  men,  they  contain  not  a 
trace  or  token  of  certain  opinions  known  to  have  been  rife  even 
before  the  close  of  the  first  Christian  century ;  while  the  (so-called) 
apocryphal  Gospels  bear,  throughout,  such  vestiges  of  their  later 
origin  as  would  neutralize  the  strongest  testimony  imaginable  in 
behalf  of  their  primitive  antiquity. 


viii  Introduction. 

of  kindred  minds  and  souls  has  lost  none  of  its 
sacredness  and  value,  the  establishment  of  a  code 
of  rules  for  it  ignores,  on  the  one  hand,  the  sponta- 
neity of  this  relation,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  its 
entire  amenableness  to  the  laws  and  principles  that 
should  restrict  and  govern  all  human  intercourse  and 
conduct. 

Shaftesbury,  in  his  "  Characteristics,"  in  his  exqui- 
site vein  of  irony,  sneers  at  Christianity  for  taking 
no  cognizance  of  friendship  either  in  its  precepts  or 
in  its  promises.  Jeremy  Taylor,  however,  speaks  of 
this  feature  of  Christianity  as  among  the  manifest 
tokens  of  its  divine  origin;  and  Soame  Jenyns  takes 
the  same  ground  in  a  treatise  expressly  designed  to 
meet  the  objections  and  cavils  of  Shaftesbury  and 
other  deistical  writers  of  his  time.  These  authors 
are  all  in  the  right,  and  all  in  the  wrong,  as  to  the 
matter  of  fact.  There  is  no  reason  why  Christianity 
should  prescribe  friendship,  which  is  a  privilege,  not 
a  duty,  or  should  essay  to  regulate  it;  for  its  only 
ethical  rule  of  strict  obligation  is  the  negative  rule, 
which  would  lay  out  for  it  a  track  that  shall  never 
interfere  with  any  positive  duty  selfward,  manward, 
or  Godward.  But  in  the  life  of  the  Founder  of 
Christianity,  who  teaches,  most  of  all,  by  example, 
friendship  has  its  apogee,  —  its  supreme  pre-emi- 
nence and  honor.  He  treats  his  apostles,  and  speaks 
of  and  to  them,  not  as  mere  disciples,  but  as  inti- 
mate and  dearly  beloved  friends  ;  among  these  there 
are  three  with  whom  he  stands  in  peculiarly  near 


Introduction.  ix 

relations ;  and  one  of  the  three  was  singled  out  by 
him  in  dying  for  the  most  sacred  charge  that  he  left 
on  the  earth ;  while  at  the  same  time  that  disciple 
shows  in  his  Gospel  that  he  had  obtained  an  inside 
view,  so  to  speak,  of  his  Master's  spiritual  life  and  of 
the  profounder  sense  of  his  teachings,  which  is  dis- 
tinguished by  contrast  rather  than  by  comparison 
from  the  more  superficial  narratives  of  the  other 
evangelists. 

But  Christianity  has  done  even  more  than  this 
for  friendship.  It  has  superseded  its  name  by  ful- 
filling its  ofl&ces  to  a  degree  of  perfectness  which 
had  never  entered  into  the  ante-Christian  mind. 
Man  shrinks  from  solitude.  He  feels  inadequate 
to  bear  the  burdens,  meet  the  trials,  and  wage  the 
conflicts  of  this  mortal  life,  alone.  Orestes  always 
needed  and  craved  a  Pylades,  but  often  failed  to 
find  one.  This  inevitable  yearning,  when  it  met 
no  human  response,  found  still  less  to  satisfy  it  in 
the  objects  of  worship.  Its  gods,  though  in  great 
part  deified  men,  could  not  be  relied  on  for  sym- 
pathy, support,  or  help.  The  stronger  spirits  did 
not  believe  in  them ;  the  feebler  looked  upon  them 
only  with  awe  and  dread.  But  Christianity,  in  its 
anthropomorphism,  which  is  its  strongest  hold  on 
faith  and  trust,  insures  for  the  individual  man  in 
a  Divine  Humanity  precisely  what  friends  might 
essay  to  do,  yet  could  do  but  imperfectly,  for  him. 
It  proffers  the  tender  sympathy  and  helpfulness  of 
Him  who  bears  the  griefs  and  carries  the  sorrows  of 


X  Introduction. 

each  and  all ;  while  the  near  view  that  it  presents 
of  the  life  beyond  death  inspires  the  sense  of  un- 
broken union  with  friends  in  heaven,  and  of  the 
fellow-feeling  of  "  a  cloud  of  witnesses "  beside. 
Thus  while  friendship  in  ordinary  life  is  never  to 
be  spurned  when  it  may  be  had  without  sacrifice 
of  principle,  it  is  less  a  necessity  than  when  man's 
relations  with  the  unseen  world  gave  no  promise 
of  strength,  aid,  or  comfort. 

Experience  has  deepened  my  conviction  that 
what  is  called  a  free  translation  is  the  only  fit  ren- 
dering of  Latin  into  English ;  that  is,  the  only  way 
of  giving  to  the  English  reader  the  actual  sense  of 
the  Latin  writer.  This  last  has  been  my  endeavor. 
The  comparison  is,  indeed,  exaggerated ;  but  it  often 
seems  to  me,  in  unrolling  a  compact  Latin  sentence, 
as  if  I  were  writing  out  in  words  the  meaning  of 
an  algebraic  formula.  A  single  word  often  requires 
three  or  four  as  its  English  equivalent.  Yet  the  lan- 
guage is  not  made  obscure  by  compression.  On  the 
contrary,  there  is  no  other  language  in  which  it  is 
so  hard  to  bury  thought  or  to  conceal  its  absence  by 
superfluous  verbiage. 

I  have  used  Beier's  edition  of  the  Be  Amicitia, 
adhering  to  it  in  the  very  few  cases  in  which  other 
good  editions  have  a  different  reading.  There  are 
no  instances  in  which  the  various  readings  involve 
any  considerable  diversity  of  meaning. 


IntrodiLction. 


XI 


LAELIUS. 

Caius  Laelius  Sapiens,  the  son  of  Caius  Laelius, 
who  was  the  life-long  friend  of  Scipio  Africanus 
the  Elder,  was  born  b.  c.  186,  a  little  earlier  in  the 
same  year  with  his  friend  Africanus  the  Younger. 
He  was  not  undistinguished  as  a  military  comman- 
der, as  was  proved  by  his  successful  campaign 
against  Viriathus,  the  Lusitanian  chieftain,  who  had 
long  held  the  Roman  armies  at  bay,  and  had  re- 
peatedly gained  signal  advantages  over  them.  He 
was  known  in  the  State,  at  first  as  leaning,  though 
moderately  and  guardedly,  to  the  popular  side,  but 
after  the  disturbances  created  by  the  Gracchi,  as  a 
strong  conservative.  He  was  a  learned  and  accom- 
plished man,  was  an  elegant  writer,  —  though  while 
the  Latin  tongue  retained  no  little  of  its  archaic 
rudeness,  —  and  was  possessed  of  some  reputation 
as  an  orator.  Though  bearing  his  part  in  public 
affairs,  holding  at  intervals  the  offices  of  Tribune, 
Praetor,  and  Consul,  and  in  his  latter  years  attend- 
ing with  exemplary  fidelity  to  such  duties  as  belonged 
to  him  as  a  member  of  the  college  of  Augurs,  he  yet 
loved  retirement,  and  cultivated,  so  far  as  he  was 
able,  studious  and  contemplative  habits.  He  was 
noted  for  his  wise  economy  of  time.     To  an  idle 


xii  Introdiiction. 

man  who  said  to  him,  "  I  have  sixty  years  "  ^  (that 
is,  I  am  sixty  years  old),  he  replied,  "  Do  you  mean 
the  sixty  years  which  you  have  not  ? "  His  private 
life  was  worthy  of  all  praise  for  the  virtues  that 
enriched  and  adorned  it;  and  its  memory  was  so 
fresh  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  two  centuries, 
that  Seneca,  who  well  knew  the  better  way  which 
he  had  not  always  strength  to  tread,  advises  his 
young  friend  Lucilius  to  "  live  with  Laelius  ; "  ^  that 
is,  to  take  his  life  as  a  model. 

The  friendship  of  Laelius  and  the  younger  Scipio 
Africanus  well  deserves  the  commemoration  which 
it  has  in  this  dialogue  of  Cicero.  It  began  in  their 
boyhood,  and  continued  without  interruption  till 
Scipio's  deatli.  Laelius  served  in  Africa,  mainly 
that  he  might  not  be  separated  from  his  friend. 
To  each  the  other's  home  was  as  his  own.  They 
were  of  one  mind  as  to  public  men  and  measures, 
and  in  all  probability  the  more  pliant  nature  of 
Laelius  yielded  in  great  measure  to  the  stern  and 
uncompromising  adherence  of  Scipio  to  the  cause  of 
the  aristocracy.  While  they  were  united  in  grave 
pursuits  and  weighty  interests,  we  have  the  most 
charming  pictures  of  their  rural  and  seaside  life  to- 
gether, even  of  their  gathering  shells  on  the  shore, 
and  of  fireside  frolics  in  which  they  forgot  the  cares 
of  the  republic,  ceased  to  be  stately  old  Eomaus, 
and  played  like  children  in  vacation-time. 

1  Sexaginta  annos  Jiabeo. 

2  yive  cum  Laelio. 


Introduction.  xiii 


FANNIUS. 

Caius  Fannius  Strabo  in  early  life  served  with 
high  reputation  in  Africa,  under  the  younger  Afri- 
canus,  and  afterward  in  Spain,  in  the  war  with 
Viriathus.  Like  his  father-in-law,  he  was  versed  in 
the  philosophy  of  the  Stoic  school,  under  the  tuition 
of  Panaetius.  He  was  an  orator,  as  were  almost  all 
the  Eomans  who  aimed  at  distinction ;  but  we  have 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  in  this  respect  rose 
above  mediocrity.  He  wrote  a  history,  of  which 
Cicero  speaks  well,  and  which  Sallust  commends  for 
its  accuracy ;  but  it  is  entirely  lost,  and  we  have 
no  direct  information  even  as  to  the  ground  which 
it  covered.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  it  was 
a  history  either  of  the  third  of  the  Punic  wars,  or 
of  all  of  them ;  for  Plutarch  quotes  from  him  — 
probably  from  his  History  —  the  statement  that 
he,  Fannius,  and  Tiberius  Gracchus  were  the  first 
to  mount  the  walls  of  Carthage  when  the  city  was 
taken. 


xiv  Introduction. 


SCAEVOLA. 

Quintus  Mucius  Scaevola  filled  successively  most 
of  the  important  offices  of  the  State,  and  was  for 
many  years,  and  until  death,  a  member  of  the  col- 
lege of  Augurs.  He  was  eminent  for  his  legal 
learning,  and  to  a  late  and  infirm  old  age  was 
still  consulted  in  questions  of  law,  never  refusing 
to  receive  clients  at  any  moment  after  daylight. 
But  while  he  was  regarded  as  foremost  among  the 
jurists  of  his  time,  he  professed  himself  less  thor- 
oughly versed  in  the  laws  relating  to  mortgages 
than  two  of  his  coevals,  to  whom  he  was  wont  to 
send  those  who  brought  cases  of  this  class  for  his 
opinion  or  advice.  He  was  remarkable  for  early 
rising,  constant  industry,  and  undeviating  punctual- 
ity, —  at  the  meetings  of  the  Senate  being  always 
the  first  on  the  ground. 

No  man  held  a  higher  reputation  than  Scaevola 
for  rigid  and  scrupulous  integrity.  It  is  related  of 
him  that  when  as  a  witness  in  court  he  had  given 
testimony  full,  clear,  strong,  and  of  the  most  damna- 
tory character  against  the  person  on  trial,  he  pro- 
tested against  the  conviction  of  the  defendant  on 
his  testimony,  if  not  corroborated,  on  the  principle 


Introduction. 


XV 


held  sacred  in  the  Jewish  law,  that  it  would  be  a 
dangerous  precedent  to  suffer  the  issue  of  any  case 
to  depend  on  the  intelligence  and  veracity  of  a  sin- 
gle witness.  When,  after  Marius  had  been  driven 
from  the  city,  Sulla  asked  the  Senate  to  declare  him 
by  their  vote  a  public  enemy,  Scaevola  stood  in  a 
minority  of  one  ;  and  when  Sulla  urged  him  to  give 
his  vote  in  the  affirmative,  his  reply  was :  "  Although 
you  show  me  the  military  guard  with  which  you 
have  surrounded  the  Senate-house,  although  you 
threaten  me  with  death,  you  will  never  induce  me, 
for  the  little  blood  still  in  an  old  man's  veins,  to 
pronounce  Marius  —  who  has  been  the  preserver  of 
the  city  and  of  Italy  —  an  enemy," 

His  daughter  married  Lucius  Licinius  Crassus, 
who  had  such  reverence  for  his  father-in-law,  that, 
when  a  candidate  for  the  consulship,  he  could  not 
persuade  himself  in  the  presence  of  Scaevola  to 
cringe  to  the  people,  or  to  adopt  any  of  the  usual 
self-humiliating  methods  of  canvassing  for  the 
popular  vote. 


xvi  Introduction. 


SCIPIO'S  DEEAM. 

Palimpsests^  —  the  name  and  the  thing  —  are 
at  least  as  old  as  Cicero.  In  one  of  his  letters  he 
banters  his  friend  Trebatius  for  writing  to  him  on 
a  palimpsest,'^  and  marvels  what  there  could  have 
been  on  the  parchment  which  he  wanted  to  erase. 
This  was  a  device  probably  resorted  to  in  that  age 
only  in  the  way  in  which  rigid  economists  of  our 
day  sometimes  utilize  envelopes  and  handbills.  But 
in  the  dark  ages,  when  classical  literature  was  under 
a  cloud  and  a  ban,  and  when  the  scanty  demand  for 
writing  materials  made  the  supply  both  scanty  and 
precarious,  such  manuscripts  of  profane  authors  as 
fell  into  the  hands  of  ecclesiastical  copyists  were 
not  unusually  employed  for  transcribing  the  works 
of  the  Christian  Fathers  or  the  lives  of  saints.  In 
such  cases  the  erasion  was  so  clumsily  performed  as 
often  to  leave  distinct  traces  of  the  previous  letters. 
The  possibility  of  recovering  lost  writings  from  these 
palimpsests  was  first  suggested  by  Montfaucon  in 
the  seventeenth  century ;  but  the  earliest  successful 

^  Rubbed  again,  —  the  parchment,  or  papyrus,  having  been 
first  polished  for  use,  and  then  rubbed  as  clean  as  possible,  to  be 
used  a  second  time. 

'  In  palimpsesto. 


Introduction. 


xvu 


experiment  of  the  kind  was  made  by  Bruns,  a  Ger- 
man scholar,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  most  distinguished  laborer  in  this 
field  has  been  Angelo  Mai,  who  commenced  his 
work  in  1814  on  manuscripts  in  the  Ambrosian 
Library  at  Milan,  of  which  he  was  then  custodian. 
Transferi'ed  to  the  Vatican  Library  at  Eome,  he 
discovered  there,  in  1821,  a  considerable  portion  of 
Cicero's  De  Republica,  which  had  been  obliterated, 
and  replaced  by  Saint  Augustine's  Commentary  on 
the  Psalms.  This  latter  being  removed  by  appro- 
priate chemical  applications,  large  portions  of  the 
original  writing  remained  legible,  and  were  promptly 
given  to  the  public. 

This  treatise  Cicero  evidently  considered,  and  not 
without  reason,  as  his  master-work.  It  was  written 
in  the  prime  of  his  mental  vigor,  in  the  fifty-fourth 
year  of  his  age,  after  ample  experience  in  the  affairs 
of  State,  and  while  he  still  hoped  more  than  he 
feared  for  the  future  of  Eome.  His  object  was  to 
discuss  in  detail  the  principles  and  forms  of  civil 
government,  to  define  the  grounds  of  preference  for 
a  republic  like  that  of  Rome  in  its  best  days,  and 
to  describe  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  good 
citizen,  whether  in  public  office  or  in  private  life. 
He  regarded  this  treatise,  in  its  ethics,  as  his  own 
directory  in  the  government  of  his  province  of 
Cilicia,  and  as  binding  him,  by  the  law  of  self-con- 
sistency, to  unswerving  uprightness  and  faithfulness. 
He  refers  to  these  six  books  on  the  Republic  as  so 


xviii  Introduction. 

many  hostages^  for  his  uncorrupt  integrity  and  un- 
tarnished honor,  and  makes  them  his  apology  to 
Atticus  for  declining  to  urge  an  extortionate  demand 
on  the  city  of  Salamis. 

The  work  is  in  the  form  of  Dialogues,  in  which, 
with  several  interlocutors  beside,  the  younger  Afri- 
canus  and  Laelius  are  the  chief  speakers  ;  and  it  is 
characterized  by  the  same  traits  of  dramatic  genius 
to  which  I  have  referred  in  connection  with  the  De 
Amicitia. 

The  De  Bepuhlica  was  probably  under  interdict 
during  the  reigns  of  the  Augustan  dynasty ;  men 
did  not  dare  to  copy  it,  or  to  have  it  known  that 
they  possessed  it ;  and  when  it  might  have  safely 
reappeared,  the  republic  had  faded  even  from  regret- 
ful memory,  and  there  was  no  desire  to  perpetuate 
a  work  devoted  to  its  service  and  honor.  Thus  the 
world  had  lost  the  very  one  of  all  Cicero's  writings 
for  which  he  most  craved  immortality.  The  por- 
tions of  it  which  Mai  has  brought  to  light  fully 
confirm  Cicero's  own  estimate  of  its  value,  and  feed 
the  earnest  —  it  is  to  be  feared  the  vain  —  desire 
for  the  recovery  of  the  entire  work. 

Scipio's  Dream,  which  is  nearly  all  that  remains 
of  the  Sixth  Book  of  the  De  RepuUica,  had  survived 
during  the  interval  for  which  the  rest  of  the  treatise 
was  lost  to  the  world.  Macrobius,  a  grammarian 
of  the  fifth  century,  made  it  the  text  of  a  commen- 
tary of  little  present  interest  or  value,  but  much 
1  Praedibus. 


Introduction.  xix 

prized  and  read  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Dream, 
independently  of  the  commentary,  has  in  more 
recent  times  passed  through  unnumbered  editions, 
sometimes  by  itself,  sometimes  with  Cicero's  ethi- 
cal writings,  sometimes  with  the  other  fragments 
of  the  De  Bepiiblica. 

In  the  closing  Dialogue  of  the  De  Rejpublica  the 
younger  Africanus  says  :  "  Although  to  the  wise  the 
consciousness  of  noble  deeds  is  a  most  ample  reward 
of  virtue,  yet  this  divine  virtue  craves,  not  indeed 
statues  that  need  lead  to  hold  them  to  their  pedes- 
tals, nor  yet  triumphs  graced  by  withering  laurels, 
but  rewards  of  firmer  structure  and  more  enduring 
green."  "  What  are  these  ?  "  says  Laelius.  Scipio 
replies  by  telling  his  dream.  The  time  of  the 
vision  was  near  the  beginning  of  the  Third  Punic 
War,  when  Scipio,  no  longer  in  his  early  youth,  was 
just  entering  upon  the  career  in  which  he  gained 
pre-eminent  fame,  thenceforward  to  know  neither 
shadow  nur  decline. 

I  have  used  for  Scipio's  Dream,  Creuzer  and 
Moser's  edition  of  the  De  BepuUica. 


CICEKO    DE    AMICITIA. 


1.  QuiNTUS  Mucius,  the  Augiir,  used  to  repeat 
from  memory,  and  in  the  most  pleasant  way,  many 
of  the  sayings  of  his  father-in-law,  Caius  Laelius, 
never  hesitating  to  apply  to  him  in  all  that  he  said 
his  surname  of  The  Wise.  When  I  first  put  on  the 
robe  of  manhood,^  my  father  took  me  to  Scaevola, 
and  so  commended  me  to  his  kind  offices,  that 
thenceforward,  so  far  as  was  possible  and  fitting,  I 
kept  my  place  at  the  old  man's  side.^    I  thus  laid 

^  In  the  earliest  time  a  boy  put  on  the  toga  virilis  when  he 
had  completed  his  sixteenth  year ;  in  Cicero's  time  pupilage 
ceased  a  year  earlier  ;  and  by  Justinian's  code  the  period  at 
which  it  legally  ceased  was  the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth 
year.  The  Scaevola  to  whom  Cicero  was  thus  taken  was  Quintus 
Mucius  (Scaevola),  the  Augur,  already  named. 

^  It  was  customary  for  youth  in  training  for  honorable  posi- 
tions in  the  State  to  attach  themselves  especially  to  men  of 
established  character  and  reputation,  to  attend  them  to  public 
places,  and  to  remain  near  them  whenever  anything  was  to  be 
learned  from  their  conversation,  their  legal  opinions,  their  public 
harangues,  or  their  pleas  before  the  courts.  Distinguished  citi- 
zens deemed  themselves  honored  by  a  retinue  of  such  attendants. 
Cicero,  in  the  De  Offidis,  says  that  a  young  man  may  best  com- 
mend himself  to  the  early  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  community 
by  such  an  intimacy. 

1 


2  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

up  in  my  memory  many  of  Lis  elaborate  discus- 
sions of  important  subjects,  as  well  as  many  of  his 
utterances  that  had  both  brevity  and  point,  and  my 
endeavor  was  to  grow  more  learned  by  his  wisdom. 
After  his  death  I  stood  in  a  similar  relation  to  the 
high-priest  Scaevola,^  whom  I  venture  to  call  the 
foremost  man  of  our  city  both  in  ability  and  in 
uprightness.  But  of  him  I  will  speak  elsewhere. 
I  return  to  the  Augur.  While  I  recall  many  simi- 
lar occasions,  I  remember  in  particular  that  at  a 
certain  time  when  I  and  a  few  of  his  more  intimate 
associates  were  sitting  with  him  in  the  semicircular 
apartment  2  in  his  house  where  he  was  wont  to  re- 
ceive his  friends,  the  conversation  turned  on  a  sub- 
ject about  which  almost  every  one  was  then  talking, 
and  which  you,  Atticus,  certainly  recollect,  as  you 
were  much  in  the  society  of  Publius  Sulpicius; 
namely,  the  intense  hatred  with  which  Sulpicius, 
when  Tribune  of  the  people,  opposed  Quintus 
Pompeius,  then  Consul,^  with  whom  he  had  lived 

^  As  Cicero  saj's,  the  most  eloquent  of  jurists,  and  the  most 
learned  jurist  among  the  eloquent.  He  was  at  the  same  time  pre- 
eminent for  moral  purity  and  integrity.  It  was  he,  who,  as  Cicero 
{De  Officiis,  iii.  15)  relates,  insisted  on  paying  for  an  estate  that 
he  bought  a  much  larger  sum  than  was  asked  for  it,  because  its 
price  had  been  fixed  far  below  its  actual  value. 

2  Latin,  Tiemiajclio,  perhaps,  a  semicircular  seat. 

8  The  quarrel  arose  from  the  zealous  espousal  of  the  Marian 
faction  by  Sulpicius,  who  resorted  to  arms,  in  order  to  effect  the 
incorporation  of  the  new  citizens  from  without  the  city  among 
the  previously  existing  tribes.  Hence  a  series  of  tumults  and 
conflicts,  in  one  of  which  a  son  of  Pompeius  lost  his  life. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  3 

in  the  closest  and  most  loving  union,  —  a  subject  of 
general  surprise  and  regret.  Having  incidentally- 
mentioned  this  affair,  Scaevola  proceeded  to  give  us 
the  substance  of  a  conversation  on  friendship,  which 
Laelius  had  with  him  and  his  other  son-in-law, 
Caius  Fannius,  the  son  of  Marcus,  a  few  days  after 
the  death  of  Africanus.  I  committed  to  memory 
the  sentiments  expressed  in  that  discussion,  and  I 
bring  them  out  in  the  book  which  I  now  send  you. 
I  have  put  them  into  the  form  of  a  dialogue,  to 
avoid  the  too  frequent  repetition  of  "  said  I "  and 
"  says  he,"  and  that  the  discussion  may  seem  as  if 
it  were  held  in  the  hearing  of  those  who  read  it. 
While  you,  indeed,  have  often  urged  me  to  write 
something  about  friendship,  the  subject  seems  to 
me  one  of  universal  interest,  and  at  the  same  time 
specially  appropriate  to  our  intimacy.  I  have 
therefore  been  very  ready  to  seek  the  profit  of 
many  by  complying  with  your  request.  But  as  in 
the  Cato  Major,  the  work  on  Old  Age  inscribed 
to  you,  I  introduced  the  old  man  Cato  as  leading 
the  discussion,  because  there  seemed  to  be  no  other 
person  better  fitted  to  talk  about  old  age  than  one 
who  had  been  an  aged  man  so  long,  and  in  his  age 
had  been  so  exceptionally  vigorous,  so,  as  we  had 
heard  from  our  fathers  of  the  peculiarly  memora- 
ble intimacy  of  Caius  Laelius  and  Publius  Scipio, 
it  appeared  appropriate  to  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Laelius  what  Scaevola  remembered  as  having  been 
said  by  him  when  friendship  was  the  subject  in 


4  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

hand.  Moreover,  this  method  of  treatment,  resting 
on  the  authority  of  men  of  an  earlier  generation, 
and  illustrious  in  their  time,  seems  somehow  to  be 
of  specially  commanding  influence  on  the  reader's 
mind.  Thus,  as  I  read  my  own  book  on  Old  Age, 
I  am  sometimes  so  affected  that  I  feel  as  if  not  I, 
but  Cato,  were  talking.  But  as  I  then  wrote  as  an 
old  man  to  an  old  man  about  old  age,  so  in  this  book 
I  write  as  the  most  loving  of  friends  to  a  friend  about 
friendship.!  Then  Cato  was  the  chief  speaker,  than 
whom  there  was  in  his  time  scarcely  any  one  older, 
and  no  one  his  superior  in  intellect;  now  Laelius 
shall  hold  the  first  place,  both  as  a  wise  man  (for 
so  he  was  regarded),  and  as  excelling  in  all  that  can 
do  honor  to  friendship.  I  want  you  for  the  while 
to  turn  your  mind  away  from  me,  and  to  imagine 
that  it  is  Laelius  who  is  speaking.  Caius  Fannius 
and  Quintus  Mucins  come  to  their  father-in-law 
after  the  death  of  Africanus.  They  commence  the 
conversation  ;  Laelius  answers  them.  In  reading 
all  that  he  says  about  friendship,  you  will  recognize 
the  picture  of  your  own  friendship  for  me. 

2.  Fannius.  It  is  as  you  say ,2  Laelius ;  for  there 
never  was  a  better  man,  or   one  more  justly  re- 

1  In  the  Latin  we  have  here  two  remarkable  series  of  asso- 
nances, rhythmical  to  the  ear,  and  though  translatable  in  sense, 
not  so  in  euphony.  "  Ut  tum  sencx  ad  senem  de  senectute,  sic  hoc 
libro  ad  amicum  amicissimus  de  amicitia  scripsi." 

*  The  reference  is  to  what  Laelius  is  supposed  to  have  said 
already.  The  dialogue,  as  given  here,  is  made  to  commence  in 
the  midst  of  a  conversation. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  5 

nowned,  than  Africanus.  But  you  ought  to  bear  it 
in  mind  that  the  eyes  of  all  are  turned  upon  you 
at  this  time ;  for  they  both  call  you  and  think  you 
wise.  This  distinction  has  been  latterly  given  to 
Cato,  and  you  know  that  in  the  days  of  our  fathers 
Lucius  Atilius  ^  was  in  like  manner  sumamed  The 
Wise ;  but  both  of  them  were  so  called  for  other 
reasons  than  those  which  have  given  you  this 
name,  —  Atilius,  for  his  reputation  as  an  adept 
in  municipal  law ;  Cato,  for  the  versatility  of  his 
endowments :  for  there  were  reported  to  his  honor 
many  measures  wisely  planned  and  vigorously  car- 
ried through  in  the  Senate,  and  many  cases  skil- 
fully defended  in  the  courts,  so  that  in  his  old  age 
The  Wise  was  generally  applied  to  him  as  a  sur- 
name. But  you  are  regarded  as  wise  on  somewhat 
different  grounds,  not  only  for  your  disposition  and 
your  moral  worth,  but  also  for  your  knowledge  and 
learning ;  and  not  in  the  estimation  of  the  common 
people,  but  in  that  of  men  of  advanced  culture, 
you  are  deemed  wise  in  a  sense  in  which  there  is 
reason  to  suppose  that  in  Greece  —  where  those 
who  look  into  these  things  most  discriminatingly 
do  not  reckon  the  seven  who  bear  the  name  as  on 
the  list  of  wise  men  —  no  one  was  so  regarded  ex- 
cept the  man  in  Athens  whom  the  oracle  of  Apollo 
designated  as  the  wisest  of  men.^    In  fine,  you  are 

1  The  first  Roman  known  to  have  home  the  surname  of  Sapiens. 
He  was  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  jurisconsults  who  took  pupils. 

2  Socrates. 


6  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

thought  to  be  wise  in  this  sense,  that  you  regard 
all  that  appertains  to  your  happiness  as  within 
your  own  soul,  and  consider  the  calamities  to 
which  man  is  liable  as  of  no  consequence  in  com- 
parison with  virtue.  I  am  therefore  asked,  and 
so,  1  believe,  is  Scaevola,  who  is  now  with  us,  how 
you  bear  the  death  of  Africanus ;  and  the  question 
is  put  to  us  the  more  eagerly,  because  on  the  fifth 
day  of  the  month  next  following,^  when  we  met, 
as  usual,  in  the  garden  of  Decimus  Brutus  the 
Augur,  to  discuss  our  official  business,  you  were 
absent,  though  it  was  your  habit  always  on  that 
day  to  give  your  most  careful  attendance  to  the 
duties  of  your  office. 

ScAEVOLA.  As  Fannius  says,  Caius  Laelius,  many 
have  asked  me  this  question.  But  I  answered  in 
accordance  with  what  I  have  seen,  that  you  were 
bearing  with  due  moderation  your  sorrow  for  the 
death  of  this  your  most  intimate  friend,  though 
you,  with  your  kindly  nature,  could  not  fail  to 
be  moved  by  it;  but  that  your  absence  from  the 
monthly  meeting  of  the  Augurs  was  due  to  illness, 
not  to  grief. 

Laelius.  You  were  in  the  right,  Scaevola,  and 
spoke  the  truth ;  for  it  was  not  fitting,  had  I  been 
in  good  health,  for  me  to  be  detained  by  my  own 

1  Latin,  proxumis  nonis.  The  nones,  the  ninth  day  before  the 
ides,  fell  on  the  fifth  of  the  month,  except  in  March,  May,  July, 
and  October,  when  the  ides  were  two  days  later.  We  have  else- 
where intimation  that  the  Augurs  held  a  meeting  for  business  on 
the  nones  of  each  month. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  7 

sad  feeling  from  this  duty,  which  I  have  never 
failed  to  discharge ;  nor  do  I  think  that  a  man  of 
firm  mind  can  be  so  affected  by  any  calamity  as 
to  neglect  his  duty.  It  is,  indeed,  friendly  in  you, 
Fannius,  to  tell  me  that  better  things  are  said  of 
me  than  I  feel  worthy  of  or  desire  to  have  said ; 
but  it  seems  to  me  that  you  underrate  Cato.  For 
either  there  never  was  a  wise  man  (and  so  I  am 
inclined  to  think),  or  if  there  has  been  such  a  man, 
Cato  deserves  the  name.  To  omit  other  things, 
how  nobly  did  he  bear  his  son's  death !  I  remem- 
bered Paulus,^  I  had  seen  Gallus,^  in  their  bereave- 
ments. But  they  lost  boys;  Cato,  a  man  in  his 
prime  and  respected  by  all.^  Beware  how  you 
place  in  higher  esteem  than  Cato  even  the  man 
whom  Apollo,  as  you  say,  pronounced  superlatively 
wise;  for  it  is  the  deeds  of  Cato,  the  sayings  of 
Socrates,  that  are  held  in  honor.  Thus  far  in  reply 
to  Fannius.  As  regards  myself,  I  will  now  answer 
both  of  you. 

3.  Were  I  to  deny  that  I  feel  the  loss  of  Scipio, 
while  I  leave  it  to  those  who  profess  themselves 
wise  in  such  matters  to  say  whether  I  ought  to  feel 

1  Paulns  Aemilius,  who  lost  two  sons,  one  a  few  days  before, 
the  other  shortly  after,  the  triumph  decreed  to  him  for  the  con- 
quest of  the  Macedonian  King  Perseus. 

2  Caius  Sulpicius  Gallus,  mentioned  as  an  astronomer  by  Cicero, 
De  OfficiiSf  i.  6,  and  De  Scnectute,  14. 

8  The  younger  Cato  had  won  fame  as  a  soldier  and  distinguished 
eminence  as  a  jurist.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  praetor 
elect. 


8  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

it,  I  certainly  should  be  uttering  a  falsehood.  I 
do  indeed  feel  my  bereavement  of  such  a  friend  as 
I  do  not  expect  ever  to  have  again,  and  as  I  am  sure 
I  never  had  beside.  But  I  need  no  comfort  from 
without;  I  console  myself,  and,  chief  of  all,  I  find 
comfort  in  my  freedom  from  the  apprehension  that 
oppresses  most  men  when  their  friends  die;  for  I 
do  not  think  that  any  evil  has  befallen  Scipio.  If 
evil  has  befallen,  it  is  to  me.  But  to  be  severely 
afflicted  by  one's  own  misfortunes  is  the  token  of 
self-love,  not  of  friendship.  As  for  him,  indeed, 
who  can  deny  that  the  issue  has  been  to  his  pre-emi- 
nent glory  ?  Unless  he  had  wished  —  what  never 
entered  into  his  mind  —  an  endless  life  on  earth, 
what  was  there  within  human  desire  that  did  not 
accrue  to  the  man  who  in  his  very  earliest  youth 
by  his  incredible  ability  and  prowess  surpassed  the 
highest  expectations  that  all  had  formed  of  his  boy- 
hood ;  who  never  sought  the  consulship,  yet  was 
made  consul  twice,  the  first  time  before  the  legal 
age,^  the  second  time  in  due  season  as  to  himself, 
but  almost  too  late  for  his  country ;  ^  who  by  the 

1  He  left  the  army  in  Africa,  b.  c.  147,  for  Rome,  to  offer  him- 
self as  a  candidate  for  the  aedileship,  for  which  he  had  just 
reached  the  legal  age  of  thirty-seven  ;  but  such  accounts  of  his 
ability,  efficiency,  and  courage  had  preceded  him  and  followed 
him  from  the  army,  that  he  was  chosen  Consul,  virtually  by 
popular  acclamation. 

2  The  war  in  Spain  had  been  continued  for  several  years,  with 
frequent  disaster  and  disgrace  to  the  Roman  army,  when  Scipio, 
B.  c.  134,  was  chosen  Consul  with  a  special  view  to  this  war, 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  9 

overthrow  of  two  cities  implacably  hostile  to  the  Eo- 
man  empire  put  a  period,  not  only  to  the  wars  that 
were,  but  to  wars  that  else  must  have  been  ?  What 
sliall  I  say  of  the  singular  affability  of  his  manners, 
of  his  filial  piety  to  his  mother,^  of  his  generosity 
to  his  sisters,^  of  his  integrity  in  his  relations  with 
all  men  ?  How  dear  he  was  to  the  community  was 
shown  by  the  grief  at  his  funeral.  What  benefit, 
then,  could  he  have  derived  from  a  few  more  years  ? 
For,  although  old  age  be  not  burdensome, —  as  I 
remember  that  Cato,  the  year  before  he  died,  main- 
tained in  a  conversation  with  me  and  Scipio,^  —  it 
yet  impairs  the  fresh  vigor  which  Scipio  had  not 
begun  to  lose.  Thus  his  life  was  such  that  nothing 
either  in  fortune  or  in  fame  could  be  added  to  it ; 
while  the  suddenness  of  his  death  must  have  taken 
away  the  pain  of  dying.  Of  the  mode  of  his  death 
it  is  hard  to  speak  with  certainty ;  you  are  aware 

which  he  closed  by  the  capture  and  destraction  of  Numantia,  in 
connection  with  which,  it  must  be  confessed,  his  record  is  rather 
that  of  a  relentless  and  sanguinary  enemy  than  of  a  generous  and 
placable  antagonist. 

1  He  was  the  son  of  Paulus  Aemilius,  and  the  adopted  son  of 
Publius  Cornelius  Scii>io  Africanus.  His  mother,  divorced  for  no 
assignable  reason,  was  left  very  poor,  and  her  sou,  on  the  death  of 
the  widow  of  his  adopting  father,  gave  her  the  entire  patrimony 
that  then  came  into  his  possession. 

2  After  his  mother's  death,  law  and  custom  authorized  him  to 
resume  what  he  had  given  her  ;  but  he  bestowed  it  on  his  sis- 
ters, thus  affording  them  the  means  of  living  comfortably  and 
respectably. 

»  The  De  Seneduie. 


10  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

what  suspicions  are  abroad.^  But  this  may  be 
said  with  truth,  that  of  the  many  days  of  surpassing 
fame  and  happiness  which  Publius  Scipio  saw  in  his 
lifetime,  the  most  glorious  was  the  day  before  his 
death,  when,  on  the  adjournment  of  the  Senate,  he 
was  escorted  home  by  the  Conscript  Fathers,  the  Eo- 
man  people,  the  men  of  Latium,  and  the  allies,^  — 
so  that  from  so  high  a  grade  of  honor  he  seems  to 
have  passed  on  into  the  assembly  of  the  gods  rather 
than  to  have  gone  down  into  the  underworld. 

1  He  retired  to  his  sleeping  apartment  apparently  in  perfect 
health,  and  was  found  dead  on  his  couch  in  the  morning,  —  as 
was  rumored,  with  marks  of  violence  on  his  neck.  His  wife 
was  Sempronia,  the  sister  of  the  Gracchi  whose  agrarian  schemes 
he  had  vehemently  opposed.  She  was  suspected  of  having  at 
least  given  admission  to  the  assassin,  and  even  her  mother,  the 
Cornelia  who  has  been  regarded  as  unparalleled  among  Roman 
women  for  the  virtues  appertaining  to  a  wife  and  mother,  did 
not  escape  the  charge  of  complicity.  Her  son  Caius  was  also 
among  those  suspected  ;  but  the  more  probable  opinion  is  that 
Papiiius  Carbo  was  alone  answerable  for  the  crime.  Carbo  had 
been  Scipio's  most  bitter  enemy,  and  had  endeavored  to  inflame 
the  people  against  him  as  their  enemy. 

2  Scipio  had  at  that  session  of  the  senate  proposed  a  measure 
in  the  utmost  degree  offensive  to  Caius  Gracchus  and  his  party. 
The  law  of  Tiberius  Gracchus  would  have  disposed,  at  the  hands 
of  the  commissioners  appointed  under  it,  of  large  tracts  of  land 
belonging  to  the  Italian  allies.  Scipio's  plan  provided  that  such 
lands  should  be  taken  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  commis- 
sioners, and  that  matters  relating  to  them  should  be  adjudged  by 
a  different  board  to  be  specially  appointed,  —  a  measure  which 
would  have  been  a  virtual  abrogation  of  the  agrarian  law.  On 
this  account  he  had  his  honorable  escort  home  ;  and  on  this 
account,  in  all  probability,  he  was  murdered. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  11 

4.  For  I  am  far  from  agreeing  with  those  who 
have  of  late  promulgated  the  opinion  that  the 
soul  perishes  with  the  body,  and  that  death  blots 
out  the  whole  being.^  I,  on  the  other  hand,  attach 
superior  value  to  the  authority  of  the  ancients, 
whether  that  of  our  ancestors  who  established  re- 
ligious rites  for  the  dead,  which  they  certainly 
would  not  have  done  if  they  had  thought  the  dead 
wholly  unconcerned  in  such  observances  ;  ^  or  that 
of  the  former  Greek  colonists  in  this  country,  who 
by  their  schools  and  teaching  made  Southern  Italy  ^ 

1  The  reference  here  is,  of  course,  to  the  Epicureans.  This 
school  of  philosophy  had  grown  very  rapidly,  and  numbered  many 
disciples  when  this  essay  was  written ;  but  in  the  time  of  Laelius 
it  had  but  recently  invaded  Rome,  and  Amafanius,  who  must 
have  been  his  contemporary,  was  the  earliest  Roman  writer  who 
expounded  its  doctrines. 

2  This  is  sound  reasoning,  as  these  rites  were  annually  re- 
newed, and  consisted  in  great  part  of  the  invocation  of  ancestors, 
—  a  custom  which  could  not  have  originated  if  those  ancestors 
were  supposed  to  be  utterly  dead.  This  passage  may  remind  the 
reader  of  the  answer  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Sadducees,  who  denied 
that  the  Pentateuch  contained  any  intimation  of  immortality. 
He  quotes  the  passage  in  which  God  is  represented  as  saying,  "  I 
am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of 
Jacob,"  and  adds,  "God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the 
living, "  implying  that  ancestors  whom  the  writer  of  that  record 
supposed  to  be  dead  could  not  have  been  thus  mentioned. 

*  Latin  Magtmrn  Graeciam,  —  the  name  given  to  the  cluster  of 
Greek  colonies  that  were  scattered  thick  along  the  shore  of 
Southern  Italy.  At  Crotona,  in  Magna  Graecia,  Pythagoras  es- 
tablished his  school,  and  these  colonies  were  the  chief  seat  and 
seminary  of  his  philosophy,  which  taught  the  immortality  of  the 
aooL 


12  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

—  now  in  its  decline,  then  flourishing  —  a  seat  of 
learning  ;  or  that  of  him  whom  the  oracle  of  ApoUo 
pronounced  the  wisest  of  men,  who  said  not  one 
thing  to-day,  another  to-morrow,  as  many  do,  but 
the  same  thing  always,  maintaining  that  the  souls 
of  men  are  divine,  and  that  when  they  go  out 
from  the  body,  the  return  to  heaven  is  open  to 
them,  and  direct  and  easy  in  proportion  to  their 
integrity  and  excellence.  This  was  also  the  opinion 
of  Scipio,  who  seemed  prescient  of  the  event  so 
near,  when,  a  very  short  time  before  his  death,  he 
discoursed  for  three  successive  days  about  the 
republic  in  the  presence  of  Philus,  Manilius,  and 
several  others, —  you,  Scaevola,  having  gone  with  me 
to  the  conferences,  —  and  near  the  close  of  the  dis- 
cussion he  told  us  what  he  said  that  he  had  heard 
from  Africanus  in  a  vision  during  sleep.^  If  it  is 
true  that  the  soul  of  every  man  of  surpassing  excel- 
lence takes  flight,  as  it  were,  from  the  custody  and 
bondage  of  the  body,  to  whom  can  we  imagine  the 
way  to  the  gods  more  easy  than  to  Scipio  ?  I 
therefore  fear  to  mourn  for  this  his  departure,  lest 
in  such  grief  there  be  more  of  &n\j  than  of  friend- 
ship.    But  if  truth  incline  to  the  opinion  that  soul 

1  The  De  Republica  consists  of  dialogues  on  three  successive 
days  in  Scipio's  garden,  and  Scipio  is  the  chief  speaker.  The 
work  was  supposed  to  be  irrecoverably  lost,  with  the  exception 
of  this  Dream  of  Scipio,  and  a  few  fragments  ;  but  considerable 
portions  of  it  were  discovered  in  a  palimpsest  in  1822.  The 
Dream  of  Scipio  will  be  found  in  the  latter  part  of  this  volume. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  13 

and  body  have  the  same  end,  and  that  there  is  no 
remaining  consciousness,  then,  as  there  is  nothing 
good  in  death,  there  certainly  is  nothing  of  evil. 
For  if  consciousness  be  lost,  the  case  is  the  same 
with  Scipio  as  if  he  had  never  been  born,  though 
that  he  was  born  I  have  so  ample  reason  to  rejoice, 
and  this  city  will  be  glad  so  long  as  it  shall  stand. 
Thus  in  either  event,  with  him,  as  I  have  said,  all 
has  issued  well,  though  with  great  discomfort  for 
me,  who  more  fittingly,  as  I  entered  into  life  before 
him,  ouglit  to  have  left  it  before  him.  But  I  so 
enjoy  the  memory  of  our  friendship,  that  I  seem  to 
have  owed  the  happiness  of  my  life  to  my  having 
lived  with  Scipio,  with  whom  I  was  united  in  the 
care  of  public  interests  and  of  private  affairs,  who 
was  my  companion  at  home  and  served  by  my  side 
in  the  army,^  and  with  whom  —  and  therein  lies 
the  special  virtue  of  friendship  —  I  was  in  perfect 
harmony  of  purpose,  taste,  and  sentiment.  Thus  I 
am  now  not  so  much  delighted  by  the  reputation  for 
wisdom  of  which  Fannius  has  just  spoken,  espe- 
cially as  I  do  not  deserve  it,  as  by  the  hope  that  our 
friendship  will  live  in  eternal  remembrance;  and 
this  I  have  the  more  at  heart  because  from  all  ages 
scarce  three  or  four  pairs  of  friends. are  on  record,^ 

1  Laelius  went  with  Scipio  on  the  campaign  which  resulted  in 
the  destruction  of  Carthage. 

2  Those  referred  to  are  prohably  Theseus  and  Peirithous, 
Achilles  and  Patroclus,  Orestes  and  Pylades,  Damon  and  Phin- 
tias,  —  all  but  the  last,  perhaps  the  last  also^  mythicaL 


14  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

on  which  list  T  cannot  but  hope  that  the  friendship 
of  Scipio  and  Laelius  will  be  known  to  posterity. 

Fannius.  It  cannot  fail,  Laelius,  to  be  as  you  de- 
sire. But  since  you  have  made  mention  of  friend- 
ship, and  we  are  at  leisure,  you  will  confer  on  me 
a  very  great  favor,  and,  I  trust,  on  Scaevola  too, 
if,  as  you  are  wont  to  do  on  other  subjects  when 
your  opinion  is  asked,  you  will  discourse  to  us  on 
friendship,  and  tell  us  what  you  think  about  it,  in 
what  estimation  you  hold  it,  and  what  rules  you 
would  give  for  it. 

Scaevola.  This  will  indeed  be  very  gratifying 
to  me,  and  had  not  Fannius  anticipated  me,  I  was 
about  to  make  the  same  request.  You  thus  will 
bestow  a  great  kindness  on  both  of  us. 

5.  Laelius.  I  certainly  would  not  hesitate,  if  I 
had  confidence  in  my  own  powers ;  for  the  subject 
is  one  of  the  highest  importance,  and,  as  Fannius 
says,  we  are  at  leisure.  It  is  the  custom  of  philos- 
ophers, especially  among  the  Greeks,  to  have  sub- 
jects assigned  to  them  which  they  discuss  even 
without  premeditation.^  This  is  a  great  accom- 
plishment, and  requires  no  small  amount  of  exer- 
cise. I  therefore  think  that  you  ought  to  seek  the 
treatment  of  friendship  by  those  who  profess  this 
art.  I  can  only  advise  you  to  prefer  friendship  to 
all  things  else  within  human  attainment,  insomuch 
as  nothing  beside  is  so  well  fitted  to  nature,  —  so 
well  adapted  to  our  needs  whether  in  prosperous 

1  This  was  the  boast  and  pride  of  the  Greek  sophists. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  15 

or  in  adverse  circumstances.  But  I  consider  this 
as  a  first  principle,  —  that  friendship  can  exist  only 
between  good  men.  In  thus  saying,  I  would  not 
be  so  rigid  in  definition  ^  as  those  who  establish 
specially  subtle  distinctions,^  with  literal  truth  it 
may  be,  but  with  little  benefit  to  the  common 
mind ;  for  they  will  not  admit  that  any  man  who 
is  not  wise  is  a  good  man.  This  may  indeed  be 
true.  But  they  understand  by  wisdom  a  state 
which  no  mortal  has  yet  attained;  while  we  ought 
to  look  at  those  qualities  which  are  to  be  found  in 
actual  exercise  and  in  common  life,  not  at  those 
which  exist  only  in  fancy  or  in  aspiration.  Caius 
Fabricius,  Manius  Curius,  Tiberius  Coruncanius, 
wise  as  they  were  in  the  judgment  of  our  fathers, 
I  will  consent  not  to  call  wise  by  the  standard  of 
these  philosophers.  Let  them  keep  for  themselves 
the  name  of  wisdom,  which  is  invidious  and  of 
doubtful  meaning,  if  they  will  only  admit  that 
these  may  have  been  good  men.  But  they  will 
not  grant  even  this;  they  insist  on  denying  the 
name  of  good  to  any  but  the  wise.  I  therefore 
adopt  the  standard  of  common  sense.^     Those  who 

1  Latin,  Ncque  id  ad  vivum  rescco,  literally,  nor  in  this  matter 
do  I  cut  to  the  quick. 

2  The  Stoics  of  the  more  rigid  type,  who  maintained  that  the 
wise  man  alone  is  good,  but  denied  that  the  truly  wise  man  had 
yet  made  his  appearance  on  the  earth. 

8  Latin,  agamus  igitur pingui  (td  aiunt)  Minerva  ;  that  is,  with 
a  less  refined,  a  grosser  wisdom,  —  a  wisdom  more  nearly  conformed 
to  the  sound,  if  somewhat  crass,  common-sense  of  the  majority. 


16  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

so  conduct  themselves,  so  live,  that  their  good  faith, 
integrity,  equity,  and  kindness  win  approval,  who 
are  entirely  free  from  avarice,  lust,  and  the  infirmi- 
ties of  a  hasty  temper,  and  in  whom  there  is  per- 
fect consistency  of  character ;  in  fine,  men  like  those 
whom  I  have  named,  while  they  are  regarded  as 
good,  ought  to  be  so  called,  because  to  the  utmost 
of  human  capacity  they  follow  Nature,  who  is  the 
best  guide  in  living  well.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  me 
thoroughly  evident  that  there  should  be  a  certain 
measure  of  fellowship  among  all,  but  more  intimate 
the  nearer  we  approach  one  another.  Thus  this 
feeling  has  more  power  between  fellow-citizens  than 
toward  foreigners,  between  kindred  than  between 
those  of  different  families.  Toward  our  kindred, 
Nature  herself  produces  a  certain  kind  of  friendship. 
But  this  lacks  strength ;  and  indeed  friendship,  in 
its  full  sense,  has  precedence  of  kinship  in  this  par- 
ticular, that  good-will  may  be  taken  away  from 
kinship,  not  from  friendship ;  for  when  good-will 
is  removed,  friendship  loses  its  name,  while  that  of 
kinship  remains.  How  great  is  the  force  of  friend- 
ship we  may  best  understand  from  this,  —  that  out 
of  the  boundless  society  of  the  human  race  which 
Nature  has  constituted,  the  sense  of  fellowship  is 
so  contracted  and  narrowed  that  the  whole  power 
of  loving  is  bestowed  on  the  union  of  two  or  a  very 
few  friends. 

6.  Friendship  is  nothing  else  than  entire  fellow- 
feeling  as  to  all  things,  human  and  divine,  with 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  17 

mutual  good-will  and  affection  ;i  and  I  doubt 
whether  anything  better  than  this,  wisdom  alone 
excepted,  has  been  given  to  man  by  the  immortal 
gods.  Some  prefer  riches  to  it ;  some,  sound  health ; 
some,  power;  some,  posts  of  honor;  many,  even 
sensual  gratification.  This  last  properly  belongs  to 
beasts;  the  others  are  precarious  and  uncertain, 
dependent  not  on  our  own  choice  so  much  as  on 
the  caprice  of  Fortune.  Those,  indeed,  who  regard 
virtue  as  the  supreme  good  are  entirely  in  the 
right ;  but  it  is  virtue  itself  that  produces  and  sus- 
tains friendship,  nor  without  virtue  can  friendship 
by  any  possibility  exist.  In  saying  this,  however, 
I  would  interpret  virtue  in  accordance  with  our 
habits  of  speech  and  of  life ;  not  defining  it,  as 
some  philosophers  do,  by  high-sounding  words,  but 
numbering  on  the  list  of  good  men  those  who  are 
commonly  so  regarded,  —  the  Pauli,  the  Catos,  the 
Galli,  the  Scipios,  the  Phili.     Mankind  in  general 

1  It  may  be  doubted  whether  this  close  conformity  of  opinion 
and  feeling  is  essential,  or  even  favorable,  to  friendship.  The 
amicable  comparison  and  collision  of  thought  and  sentiment  are 
certainly  consistent  with,  and  often  conducive  to,  the  most  friendly 
intimacy.  Friends  are  not  infrequently  the  complements,  rather 
than  the  likenesses,  of  each  other.  Cicero  and  Atticus  wei-e  as 
close  friends  as  Scipio  and  Laelius  ;  but  they  were  at  many  points 
exceedingly  unlike.  Atticus  had  the  tact  and  skill  in  worldly 
matters  which  Cicero  lacked.  Atticus  kept  aloof  from  public 
affairs,  while  Cicero  was  unhappy  whenever  he  could  not  imagine 
himself  as  taking  a  leading  part  in  them.  Atticus  was  an  Epi- 
curean, and  Cicero  never  loses  an  opportunity  of  attacking  the 
Epicurean  philosophy. 

2 


18  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

are  content  with  these.  Let  us  then  leave  out  of  the 
account  such  good  men  as  are  nowhere  to  be  found. 
Among  such  good  men  as  there  really  are,  friend- 
ship has  more  advantages  than  I  can  easily  name. 
In  the  first  place,  as  Ennius  says :  — 

"  How  can  life  be  worth  living,  if  devoid 
Of  the  calm  trust  reposed  by  friend  in  friend  ? 
What  sweeter  joy  than  in  the  kindred  soul, 
Whose  converse  differs  not  from  self-communion  ?  " 

How  could  you  have  full  enjoyment  of  prosperity, 
unless  with  one  whose  pleasure  in  it  was  equal  to 
your  own  ?  Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  bear  adver- 
sity, unless  with  the  sympathy  of  one  on  whom  it 
rested  more  heavily  than  on  your  own  soul.  Then, 
too,  other  objects  of  desire  are,  in  general,  adapted, 
each  to  some  specific  purpose,  —  wealth,  that  you 
may  use  it ;  power,  that  you  may  receive  the  hom- 
age of  those  around  you ;  posts  of  honor,  that  you 
may  obtain  reputation  ;  sensual  gratification,  that 
you  may  live  in  pleasure ;  health,  that  you  may  be 
free  from  pain,  and  may  have  full  exercise  of  your 
bodily  powers  and  faculties.  But  friendship  com- 
bines the  largest  number  of  utilities.  Wherever 
you  turn,  it  is  at  hand.  No  place  shuts  it  out.  It 
is  never  unseasonable,  never  annoying.  Thus,  as 
the  proverb  says,  "You  cannot  put  water  or  fire 
to  more  uses  than  friendship  serves."  I  am  not 
now  speaking  of  the  common  and  moderate  type 
of  friendship,  which  yet  yields  both  pleasure  and 
profit,  but  of  true  and  perfect  friendship,  like  that 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  19 

which  existed  in  the  few  instances  that  are  held  in 
special  remembrance.  Such  friendship  at  once  en- 
hances the  lustre  of  prosperity,  and  by  dividing  and 
sharing  adversity  lessens  its  burden. 

7.  Moreover,  while  friendship  comprises  the  great- 
est number  and  variety  of  beneficent  offices,  it  cer- 
tainly has  this  special  prerogative,  that  it  lights  up 
a  good  hope  for  the  time  to  come,  and  thus  pre- 
serves the  minds  that  it  sustains  from  imbecility 
or  prostration  in  misfortune.  For  he,  indeed,  who 
looks  into  the  face  of  a  friend  beholds,  as  it  were, 
a  copy  of  himself.  Thus  the  absent  are  present, 
and  the  poor  are  rich,  and  the  weak  are  strong,  and 
—  what  seems  stranger  still  ^  —  the  dead  are  alive, 
such  is  the  honor,  the  enduring  remembrance,  the 
longing  love,  with  which  the  dying  are  followed  by 
the  living ;  so  that  the  death  of  the  dying  seems 
happy,  the  life  of  the  living  full  of  praise.^  But 
if  from  the  condition  of  human  life  you  were  to 
exclude  all  kindly  union,  no  house,  no  city,  could 
stand,  nor,  indeed,  could   the  tillage  of  the  field 

1  Literally,  wJiat  is  harder  to  say. 

*  The  sense  of  this  sentence  is  somewhat  overlaid  by  the  rhet- 
oric ;  yet  it  undoubtedly  means  that  an  absent  friend  is  esteemed 
and  honored  in  the  person  of  the  friend  who  not  only  loves  him, 
but  is  regarded  as  representing  him  ;  that  a  poor  friend  enjoys  the 
prosperity  of  his  rich  friend  as  if  it  were  his  own  ;  that  a  weak 
friend  feels  his  feebleness  energized  by  the  friend  who  in  need  will 
fight  his  battles  for  him  ;  and  that  no  man  is  suffered  to  lapse  from 
the  kind  and  reverent  remembrance  of  those  who  see  his  likeness 
in  the  friend  who  keeps  his  memory  green. 


20  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

survive.  If  it  is  not  perfectly  understood  what 
virtue  there  is  in  friendship  and  concord,  it  may- 
be learned  from  dissension  and  discord.  For  what 
house  is  so  stable,  what  state  so  firm,  that  it  cannot 
be  utterly  overturned  by  hatred  and  strife  ?  Hence 
it  may  be  ascertained  how  much  good  there  is  in 
friendship.  It  is  said  that  a  certain  philosopher  of 
Agrigentum  ^  sang  in  Greek  verse  that  it  is  friend- 
ship that  draws  together  and  discord  that  parts  all 
things  which  subsist  in  harmony,  and  which  have 
their  various  movements  in  nature  and  in  the  whole 
universe.  The  worth  and  power  of  friendsliip,  too, 
aU  mortals  understand,  and  attest  by  their  approval 
in  actual  instances.  Thus,  if  there  comes  into  con- 
spicuous notice  an  occasion  on  which  a  friend 
incurs  or  shares  the  perils  of  his  friend,  who  can 
fail  to  extol  the  deed  with  the  highest  praise  ? 
What  shouts  filled  the  whole  theatre  at  the  per- 
formance of  the  new  play  of  my  guest  ^  and  friend 
Marcus   Pacuvius,  when — the  king  not   knowing 

1  Empedocles.  Only  a  few  fi-agments  of  his  great  poem  are 
extant.  His  theory  seems  like  a  poetical  version  of  Newton's 
law  of  universal  gravitation.  The  analogy  between  physical 
attraction  and  the  mutual  attraction  of  congenial  minds  and 
souls  has  its  record  in  the  French  word  aimant,  denoting  load- 
stone or  magnet. 

2  Or  host ;  for  the  word  hospes  may  have  either  meaning.  It 
denotes  not  the  fact  of  giving  or  receiving  hospitality,  but  the 
permanent  and  sacred  relation  established  between  host  and 
guest.  This  relation  has  lost  much  of  its  character  iu  modem 
civilization,  and  I  doubt  whether  it  has  a  name  in  any  modern 
European  language. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  21 

•which  of  the  two  was  Orestes  —  Pylades  said  that 
he  was  Orestes,  while  Orestes  persisted  in  assert- 
ing that  he  was,  as  in  fact  he  was,  Orestes  !  ^  The 
whole  assembly  rose  in  applause  at  this  mere  fic- 
titious representation.  What  may  we  suppose  that 
they  would  liave  done,  had  the  same  thing  occurred 
in  real  life  ?  In  that  case  Nature  herself  displayed 
her  power,  when  men  recognized  that  as  rightly  done 
by  another,  which  they  would  not  have  had  the 
courage  to  do  themselves.  Thus  far,  to  the  utmost 
of  my  ability  as  it  seems  to  me,  I  have  given  you 
my  sentiments  concerning  friendship.  If  there  is 
more  to  be  said,  as  I  think  that  there  is,  endeavor 
to  obtain  it,  if  you  see  fit,  of  those  who  are  wont  to 
discuss  such  subjects. 

Fannius.  But  we  would  rather  have  it  from 
you.  Although  I  have  often  consulted  those  phi- 
losophers also,  and  have  listened  to  them  not  un- 
willingly, yet  the  thread  of  your  discourse  differs 
somewhat  from  that  of  theii's. 


1  Among  the  many  and  conflicting  legends  about  Orestes  is 
that  which  seems  to  have  been  the  theme  of  the  lost  tragedy  of 
Pacuvius.  Orestes,  after  avenging  on  his  mother  and  her  para- 
mour the  murder  of  his  father,  in  order  to  expiate  the  guilt  of 
matricide,  was  directed  by  the  Delphian  oracle  to  go  to  Tauris, 
and  to  steal  and  transport  to  Athens  an  image  of  Artemis  that 
had  fallen  from  heaven.  His  friend  Pylades  accompanied  him 
on  this  expedition.  They  were  seized  by  Thoas  the  king,  and 
Orestes,  as  principal  offender,  was  to  be  sacrificed  to  Artemis. 
His  sister,  Iphigeneia,  priestess  of  Artemis,  contrived  their  escape, 
and  the  three  arrived  safe  at  Athens  with  the  sacred  image. 


22  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

ScAEVOLA.  You  would  say  so  all  the  more,  Fan- 
nius,  had  you  been  present  in  Scipio's  garden  at 
that  discussion  about  the  republic,  and  heard  what 
an  advocate  of  justice  he  showed  himself  in  answer 
to  the  elaborate  speech  of  Philus.^ 

Fanxius.  It  was  indeed  easy  for  the  man  pre- 
eminently just  to  defend  justice. 

Scaevola.  As  to  friendship,  then,  is  not  its  de- 
fence easy  for  him  who  has  won  the  highest  celeb- 
rity on  the  ground  of  friendship  maintained  with 
pre-eminent  faithfulness,  consistency,  and  probity  ? 

8.  Laelius.  This  is,  indeed,  the  employing  of 
force ;  for   what   matters   the   way   in  which   you 

1  Carneades,  when  on  an  embassy  to  Rome,  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  his  Roman  hosts,  on  one  day  delivered  a  discourse  in 
behalf  of  justice  as  the  true  policy  for  the  State,  and  on  the  next 
day  delivered  an  equally  subtile  and  eloquent  discourse  maintain- 
ing the  opposite  thesis.  In  the  third  Book  of  the  De  Rcpuhlica 
Philus  is  made  a  "  devil's  advocate,"  and  has  assigned  to  him  the 
championship  of  what  we  are  wont  to  call  a  Machiavelian  policy, 
and,  in  general,  of  the  morally  wrong  as  the  politically  right.  He 
is  represented  as  taking  the  part  reluctantly,  saying  that  one  con- 
sents to  soil  his  hands  in  order  to  find  gold,  and  he  professes  to 
give  the  substance  of  the  famous  discourse  of  Carneades.  Laelius 
answers  him,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  fragments  of  his 
reply  that  are  extant,  with  the  preponderance  of  reason,  which 
Cicero  intended  should  incline  on  the  better  side.  There  was 
perhaps  a  sublatent  irony  in  making  Philus  play  this  part ;  for 
he  was  an  eminently  upright  man.  Valerius  Maximus  eulogizes 
him  for  his  rigid  integrity  and  impartiality,  and  relates  that  when 
at  the  expiration  of  his  consulship  he  was  sent  to  take  command 
of  the  army  against  Numantia,  he  chose  for  his  lieutenants 
Metellus  and  Pompeius,  both  his  intensely  bitter  enemies,  but 
the  men  best  fitted  for  the  service. 


Cicero  de  Amieitia.  23 

compel  me  ?  You  at  any  rate  do  compel  me ;  for 
it  is  both  hard  and  unfair  not  to  comply  with  the 
wishes  of  one's  sons-in-law,  especially  in  a  case  that 
merits  favorable  consideration. 

In  reflecting,  then,  very  frequently  on  friendship, 
the  foremost  question  that  is  wont  to  present  itself 
is,  whether  friendship  is  craved  on  account  of  con- 
scious infirmity  and  need,  so  that  in  bestowing  and 
receiving  the  kind  ofi&ces  that  belong  to  it  each 
may  have  that  done  for  him  by  the  other  which 
he  is  least  able  to  do  for  himself,  reciprocating  ser- 
vices in  like  manner ;  or  whether,  though  tliis  rela- 
tion of  mutual  benefit  is  the  property  of  friendship, 
it  has  yet  another  cause,  more  sacred  and  more 
noble,  and  derived  more  genuinely  from  the  very 
nature  of  man.  Love,  which  iu  our  language  gives 
name  to  friendship,^  bears  a  chief  part  in  unions 
of  mutual  benefit ;  for  a  revenue  of  service  is  lev- 
ied even  on  those  who  are  cherished  in  pretended 
friendship,  and  are  treated  with  regard  from  inter- 
ested motives.  But  in  friendship  there  is  nothing 
feigned,  nothing  pretended,  and  whatever  there  is 
in  it  is  both  genuine  and  spontaneous.  Friend- 
ship, therefore,  springs  from  nature  rather  than 
from  need,  —  from  an  inclination  of  the  mind  with 
a  certain  consciousness  of  love  rather  than  from 
calculation  of  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  it. 
Its  real  quality  may  be  discerned  even  in  some 
classes  of  animals,  which  up  to  a  certain  time  so 

1  Amor,  —  amicUia. 


24  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

love  their  offspring,  and  are  so  loved  by  them,  that 
the  mutual  feeling  is  plainly  seen,  —  a  feeling  which 
is  much  more  clearly  manifest  in  man,  first,  in  the 
affection  which  exists  between  children  and  parents, 
and  which  can  be  dissolved  only  by  atrocious  guilt ; 
and  in  the  next  place,  in  the  springing  up  of  a  like 
feeling  of  love,  when  we  find  some  one  of  manners 
and  character  congenial  with  our  own,  who  becomes 
dear  to  us  because  we  seem  to  see  in  him  an  illus- 
trious example  of  probity  and  virtue.  For  there  is 
nothing  more  lovable  than  virtue,  —  nothing  which 
more  surely  wins  affectionate  regard,  insomuch  that 
on  the  score  of  virtue  and  probity  we  love  even 
those  whom  we  have  never  seen.  Who  is  there 
that  does  not  recall  the  memory  of  Caius  Fabricius, 
of  Manius  Curius,  of  Tiberius  Coruncanius,  whom 
he  never  saw,  with  some  good  measure  of  kindly 
feeling  ?  On  the  other  hand,  who  is  there  that  can 
fail  to  hate  Tarquinius  Superbus,  Spurius  Cassius, 
Spurius  Maelius?  Our  dominion  in  Italy  was  at 
stake  in  wars  under  two  commanders,  PyiThus  and 
Hannibal  On  account  of  the  good  faith  of  the 
one,  we  hold  him  in  no  unfriendly  remembrance  ;  ^ 
the  other  because  of  his  cruelty  our  people  must 
always  hate.^ 

*  Pyrrhns,  after  the  only  victory  that  he  obtained  over  the 
Eomans,  treated  his  prisoners  with  signal  humanity,  and  restored 
them  without  ransom.     See  De  Officiis,  i.  12. 

2  It  may  be  doubted  whether  Hannibal  deserved  the  reproach 
here  implied.  The  Roman  historians  ascribe  to  him  acts  of  cru- 
elty no  worse  than  their  own  generals  were  chargeable  with ;  while 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  25 

9.  But  if  good  faitli  has  such  attractive  power 
that  we  love  it  in  those  whom  we  have  never  seen, 
or  —  what  means  still'  more  —  in  an  enemy,  what 
wonder  is  it  if  the  minds  of  men  are  moved  to 
affection  when  they  behold  the  virtue  and  goodness 
of  those  with  whom  they  can  become  intimately 
united  ? 

Love  is,  indeed,  strengthened  by  favors  received, 
by  witnessing  assiduity  in  one's  service,  and  by 
habitual  intercourse ;  and  when  these  are  added  to 
the  first  impulse  of  the  mind  toward  love,  there 
flames  forth  a  marvellously  rich  glow  of  affectionate 
feeling.  If  there  are  any  who  think  that  this  pro- 
ceeds from  conscious  weakness  and  the  desire  to 
have  some  person  through  whom  one  can  obtain 
■what  he  lacks,  they  assign,  indeed,  to  friendship  a 
mean  and  utterly  ignoble  origin,  born,  as  they  would 
have  it,  of  poverty  and  neediness.  If  this  were  true, 
then  the  less  of  resource  one  was  conscious  of  hav- 
ing in  himself,  the  better  fitted  would  he  be  for 
friendship.  The  contrary  is  the  case ;  for  the  more 
confidence  a  man  has  in  himself,  and  the  more 
thoroughly  he  is  fortified  by  virtue  and  wisdom,  so 

nothing  of  the  kind  is  related  by  either  Polybius  or  Plutarch.  It 
is  certain  that  after  the  battle  of  Cannae  he  checked  the  needless 
slaughter  of  the  Roman  fugitives,  and  Livy  relates  several  in- 
stances in  which  he  paid  funeral  honors  to  distinguished  Eomans 
slain  in  battle.  The  intense  hostility  of  the  Romans  to  Carthage 
may  have  led  to  an  unfair  estimate  of  the  great  general's  char- 
acter, and  to  the  invention  or  exaggeration  of  reports  to  his  dis- 
credit. 


26  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

that  he  is  in  need  of  no  one,  and  regards  all  that 
concerns  him  as  in  his  own  keeping,  the  more  note- 
worthy is  he  for  the  friendships  which  he  seeks  and 
cherishes.  What  ?  Did  Africanus  need  me  ?  Not 
in  the  least,  by  Hercules.  As  little  did  I  need 
him.  But  I  was  drawn  to  him  by  admiration  of 
his  virtue,  while  he,  in  turn,  loved  me,  perhaps, 
from  some  favorable  estimate  of  my  character; 
and  intimacy  increased  our  mutual  affection.  But 
though  utilities  many  and  great  resulted  from  our 
friendship,  the  cause  of  our  mutual  love  did  not 
proceed  from  the  hope  of  what  it  might  bring, 
For  as  we  are  beneficent  and  generous,  not  in 
order  to  exact  kindnesses  in  return  (for  we  do  not 
put  our  kind  offices  to  interest),  but  are  by  nature  in- 
clined to  be  generous,  so,  in  my  opinion,  friendship 
is  not  to  be  sought  for  its  wages,  but  because  its 
revenue  consists  entirely  in  the  love  wdiich  it  im- 
plies. Those,  however,  who,  after  the  manner  of 
beasts,  refer  everything  to  pleasure,^  think  very 
differently.  Nor  is  it  wonderful  that  they  do ;  for 
men  who  have  degraded  all  their  thoughts  to  so 
mean  and  contemptible  an  end  can  rise  to  the 
contemplation  of  nothing  lofty,  nothing  magnifi- 
cent and  divine.  We  may,  therefore,  leave  them 
out  of  this  discussion.  But  let  us  have  it  well 
understood  that  the  feeling  of  love  and  the  en- 
dearments of  mutual  affection  spring  from  nature, 
in  case  there  is  a  well-established  assurance  of 
1  The  Epicureans. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  27 

moral  worth  in  the  person  thus  loved.  Those  who 
desire  to  become  friends  approach  each  other,  and 
enter  into  relation  with  each  other,  that  each  may 
enjoy  tlie  society  and  the  character  of  him  whom 
he  has  begun  to  love,  and  they  are  equal  in  love, 
and  on  either  side  are  more  inclined  to  bestow 
obligations  than  to  claim  a  return,  so  that  in  this 
matter  there  is  an  honorable  rivalry  between  them. 
Thus  will  the  greatest  benefits  be  derived  from 
friendship,  and  it  will  have  a  more  solid  and  genu- 
ine foundation  as  tracing  its  origin  to  nature  than 
if  it  proceeded  from  human  weakness.  For  if  it 
were  utility  that  cemented  friendships,  an  altered 
aspect  of  utility  would  dissolve  them.  But  be- 
cause nature  cannot  be  changed,  therefore  true 
friendships  are  eternal.  This  may  suffice  for  the 
origin  of  friendship,  unless  you  have,  perchance, 
some  objection  to  what  I  have  said. 

Fannius.  Go  on,  Laelius.  I  answer  by  the  right 
of  seniority  for  Scaevola,  who  is  younger  than  I  am. 

ScAEVOLA..  I  am  of  the  same  mind  with  you. 
Let  us,  then,  hear  farther. 

10.  Laelius.  Hear,  then,  my  excellent  friends, 
the  substance  of  the  frequent  discussions  on  friend- 
ship  between  Scipio  and  me.     He,  indeed,  said^ 

1  The  construction  of  this  entire  section  is  in  the  subjnnctive 
imperfect,  depending  on  the  dicebat  in  the  second  sentence.  It 
has  seemed  to  me  that  the  direct  form  of  construction  which 
I   have  adopted    is   more    consonant  with   the  genius   of   our 


28  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

that  nothing  is  more  difficult  than  for  friendship  to 
last  through  life ;  for  friends  happen  to  have  con- 
flicting interests,  or  different  political  opinions. 
Then,  again,  as  he  often  said,  characters  change, 
sometimes  under  adverse  conditions,  sometimes 
with  growing  years.  He  cited  also  the  analogy 
of  what  takes  place  in  early  youth,  the  most  ardent 
loves  of  boyhood  being  often  laid  aside  with  its 
robe.  But  if  friendships  last  on  into  opening  man- 
hood, they  are  not  infrequently  broken  up  by 
rivalry  in  quest  of  a  wife,  or  in  the  pursuit  of  some 
advantage  which  only  one  can  obtain.^  Then,  if 
friendships  are  of  longer  duration,  they  yet,  as 
Scipio  said,  are  liable  to  be  undermined  by  compe- 
tition for  office ;  and  indeed  there  is  nothing  more 
fatal  to  friendship  than,  in  very  many  cases,  the 
greed  of  gain,  and  among  some  of  the  best  of  men 
the  contest  for  place  and  fame,  which  has  often 
engendered  the  most  intense  enmity  between  those 

1  Had  Cicero  not  been  personating  Laelius,  who  died  long  be- 
fore the  quarrel  occurred,  he  would  undoubtedly  liave  cited  the 
case  of  Scrvilius  Caepio  and  Livius  Dnisus.  They  married  each 
other's  sisters,  and  were  united  in  the  closest  intimacy,  and  seem- 
ingly in  the  dearest  mutual  love  ;  but  as  rivals  in  bidding  for  a 
ring  at  an  auction-sale  they  had  their  first  quarrel,  which  grew 
into  intense  mutual  hatred,  led  almost  to  a  civil  war  between 
their  respective  partisans,  and  bore  no  small  part  in  starting  the 
series  of  dissensions  which  issued  in  the  Social  War,  and  the  de- 
struction of  not  far  from  three  hundred  thousand  lives.  I  refer  to 
this  in  a  note,  because  it  must  have  been  fresh  in  Cicero's  mem- 
ory, and  had  annotation  been  the  habit  of  his  time,  he  would 
most  assuredly  have  given  it  the  place  which  I  now  give  it. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  29 

who  had  been  the  closest  friends.  Strong  and  gen- 
erally just  aversion,  also,  springs  up  when  any- 
thing morally  wrong  is  required  of  a  friend;  as 
when  he  is  asked  to  aid  in  the  gratification  of 
impure  desire,  or  to  render  his  assistance  in  some 
unrighteous  act,  —  in  which  case  those  who  refuse, 
although  their  conduct  is  highly  honorable,  are  yet 
charged  by  the  persons  whom  they  will  not  serve 
with  being  false  to  the  claims  of  friendship,  while 
those  who  dare  to  make  such  a  demand  of  a  friend 
profess,  by  the  very  demand,  that  they  are  ready 
to  do  anything  and  everything  for  a  friend's  sake. 
By  such  quarrels,  not  only  are  old  intimacies  often 
dissolved,  but  undying  hatreds  generated.  So  many 
of  these  perils  hang  like  so  many  fates  over  friend- 
ship, that  to  escape  them  all  seemed  to  Scipio,  as 
he  said,  to  indicate  not  wisdom  alone,  but  equally 
a  rare  felicity  of  fortune. 

11.  Let  us  then,  first,  if  you  please,  consider 
how  far  the  love  of  friends  ought  to  go.  If  Co- 
riolanus  had  friends,  ought  they  to  have  helped 
him  in  fighting  against  his  country,  or  should 
the   friends   of   Viscellinus  ^   or   those   of  Spurius 

1  Spurius  Cassius  Viscellinus,  the  author  of  the  earliest  agra- 
rian law,  passed,  but  never  carried  into  execution.  He  was  cou- 
demued  to  death,  —  probably  a  victim  to  the  rancorous  opposition 
of  the  patrician  order,  of  which  he  was  regarded  as  a  recreant 
member  by  virtue  of  his  advocacy  of  the  rights. or  just  claims  of 
the  plehs.  Cicero  in  early  life  was  by  no  means  so  hostile  to  the 
principle  underlying  the  agrarian  laws  and  to  the  memory  of  the 
Gracchi,  as  he  was  after  he  had  reached  the  highest  offices  in 
the  gift  of  the  people. 


30  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

Maeliiis  ^  have  aided  tliem  in  the  endeavor  to  usurp 
regal  power  ?  We  saw,  indeed,  Tiberius  Gracchus, 
when  he  was  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  State, 
deserted  by  Quintus  Tubero  and  others  with  whom 
he  had  been  on  terms  of  intimacy.  But  Caius  Blos- 
sius,  of  Cumae,  the  guest,^  Scaevola,  of  your  family, 
coming  to  me,  when  I  was  in  conference  with  the 
Consuls  Laenas  and  Eupilius,  to  implore  pardon, 
urged  the  plea  that  he  held  Tiberius  Gracchus  in  so 
dear  esteem  that  he  felt  bound  to  do  whatever  he  de- 
sired. I  then  asked  him,  "  Even  if  he  had  wanted 
you  to  set  fire  to  the  Capitol,  would  you  have  done 
it  ? "  He  replied,  "  He  never  would  have  made  such 
a  request."  "  But  if  he  had  ? "  said  I.  "  I  would  have 
obeyed  him,"  was  the  answer.  And,  by  Hercules, 
he  did  as  he  said,  or  even  more ;  for  he  did  not  so 
much  yield  obedience  to  the  audacious  schemes  of 
Tiberius  Gracchus,  as  he  was  foremost  in  them ; 
he  was  not  so  much  the  companion  of  his  madness, 
as  its  leader.  Therefore,  in  consequence  of  this 
folly,  alarmed  by  the  appointment  of  special  judges 
for  his  trial,  he  fled  to  Asia,  entered  the  service  of 

1  Maelius,  of  the  equestrian  order,  but  of  a  plebeian  family, 
obtained  unbounded  popularity  with  the  plchs  by  selling  corn  at  a 
low  price,  and  giving  away  large  quantities  of  it,  in  a  time  of  fam- 
ine. He  was  charged  with  seeking  kingly  power,  and,  on  account 
of  his  alleged  movements  with  thivt  purpose,  Cincinnatus  was 
appointed  dictator,  and  Maelius,  resisting  a  summons  to  his  tribu- 
nal, was  killed  by  Ahala,  his  master  of  the  horse.  There  seems 
to  have  been  little  evidence  of  his  actual  guilt. 

2  Hospes,  guest,  host,  or  both. 


Cicero  de  Atnicitia.  31 

our  enemies,  and  finally  met  the  heavy  and  just 
punishment  for  his  disloyalty  to  his  country.^  It 
is,  then,  no  excuse  for  wrong-doing  that  you  do 
wrong  for  the  sake  of  a  friend.  Indeed,  since  it 
may  have  been  a  belief  in  your  virtue  that  has 
made  one  your  friend,  it  is  hard  for  friendship  to 
last  if  you  fall  away  from  virtue.  But  if  we  should 
determine  either  to  concede  to  friends  whatever 
they  may  ask,  or  to  exact  from  them  whatever  we 
may  desire,  we  and  they  must  be  endowed  with 
perfect  wisdom,  in  order  for  our  friendship  to  be 
blameless.  We  are  speaking,  however,  of  such 
friends  as  we  have  before  our  eyes,  or  as  we  liave 
seen  or  have  known  by  report,  —  of  such  as  are 
found  in  common  life.  It  is  from  these  that  we 
must  take  our  examples,  especially  from  such  of 
them  as  make  the  nearest  approach  to  perfect 
wisdom.  We  have  learned  from  our  fathers  that 
Papus  Aemilius  was  very  intimate  with  Caius 
Luscinus,  they  having  twice  been  consuls  together, 
as  well  as  colleagues  in  the  censorship ;  and  it  is 
said  also  that  Manius  Curius  and  Tiberius  Corun- 
canius  lived  in  the  closest  friendship  both  with 
them  and  with  each  other.  Now  we  cannot  sus- 
pect that  either  of  these  men  would  have  asked  of 
one  of  his  friends  anything  inconsistent  with  good 
faith,  or  with  an  engagement  sanctioned  by  oath,  or 

1  He  took  refuge  with  Aristonicus,  King  of  Pergamus,  then  at 
war  with  Eome  ;  and  when  Aristonicus  was  conquered,  Blossius 
committed  suicide  for  fear  of  being  captured  by  the  Roman  army. 


32  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

witli  his  duty  to  the  State.  Indeed,  to  what  pur- 
pose is  it  to  say  that  among  such  men  if  one  had 
asked  anything  wrong,  he  would  not  have  obtained 
it  ?  For  they  were  men  of  the  most  sacred  integ- 
rity ;  while  to  ask  anything  wrong  of  a  friend  and 
to  do  it  when  asked  are  alike  tokens  of  deep  de- 
pravity. But  Caius  Carbo  and  Caius  Cato  were 
the  followers  of  Tiberius  Gracchus,  as  was  his 
brother  Caius,  at  first  with  little  ardor,  but  now^ 
most  zealously. 

12.  As  to  friendship,  then,  let  this  law  be  enacted, 
that  we  neither  ask  of  a  friend  what  is  wrong,  nor 
do  what  is  wrong  at  a  friend's  request.  The  plea 
that  it  was  for  a  friend's  sake  is  a  base  apology,  — 
one  that  should  never  be  admitted  with  regard  to 
other  forms  of  guilt,  and  certainly  not  as  to  crimes 
against  the  State.  We,  indeed,  Fannius  and  Scae- 
vola,  are  so  situated  that  we  ought  to  look  far  in 
advance  for  the  perils  that  our  country  may  in- 
cur. Already  has  our  public  policy  deviated  some- 
what from  the  method  and  course  of  our  ancestors. 
Tiberius  Gracchus  attempted  to  exercise  supreme 
power ;  nay,  he  really  reigned  for  a  few  mouths. 
"What  like  this  had  the  Roman  people  ever  heard  or 
seen  before  ?  What,  after  his  death,  the  friends 
and  kindred  who  followed  him  did  in  their  revenge 

^  Now;  that  is,  at  the  time  at  which  this  dialogue  has  its 
assumed  date,  immediately  after  Scipio's  death.  At  that  time 
Caius  Gracchus  was  acting  as  a  commissioner  under  his  brother's 
agrarian  law. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  33 

on  Publius  Scipio^  I  cannot  say  without  tears. 
We  put  up  with  Carbo^  as  well  as  we  could  in 
consideration  of  the  recent  punishment  of  Tiberius 
Gracchus;  but  I  am  in  no  mood  to  predict  what  is  to 
be  expected  from  the  tribuneship  of  Caius.Gracchus. 
Meanwhile  the  evil  is  creeping  upon  us,  from  its 
very  beginning  fraught  with  threats  of  ruin.  Be- 
fore recent  events,^  you  perceive  how  much  degen-. 
eracy  was  indicated  in  the  legalizing  of  the  ballot, 
first  by  the  Gabinian,*  then  two  years  later  by  the 
Cassian  law.^   I   seem   already  to   see  the  people 

^  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  Nasica,  who  took  the  lead  of  the 
Senate  in  the  assassination  of  Tiberius  Gracchus,  and  incurred 
such  popular  odium  that  he  could  not  safely  stay  in  Rome.  He 
was  sent  on  a  fictitious  mission  to  Asia  .to  get  him  out  of  the 
way  of  the  people,  and,  not  daring  to  return,  wandered  with  no 
settled  habitation  till  his  death  at  Pergamum  not  long  before 
the  assumed  date  of  this  dialogue. 

2  Carbo  succeeded  Tiberius  Gracchus  on  the  commission  for 
carrying  the  agrarian  law  into  execution,  and  was  shortly  afterwar(^ 
chosen  Tribune.  He  then  proposed  a  law,  permitting  a  tribune  to 
be  re-elected  for  an  indefinite  number  of  years.  This  law  was  ve- 
hemently opposed  by  Scipio  Africanus  the  Younger,  and  if  he  was 
really  killed  by  Carbo,  it  was  probably  on  account  of  his  iostility 
to  Carbo's  ambitious  schemes. 

8  The  reference  undoubtedly  here  is  to  the  Papirian  law  which 
had  been  passed  just  before  the  assumed  date  of  this  dialogue, 
having  been  proposed  and  carried  through  by  (Caius  Papirius) 
Carbo.  By  this  law  the  use  of  the  ballot  was  established  in  all 
matters  of  popular  legislation. 

*  By  which  magistrates  were  to  be  chosen  by  ballot. 

5  By  which  the  judges  were  to  be  chosen  by  ballot  With 
reference  to  the  use  of  the  ballot  the  parties  in  Rome  were 
prototypes  of  like  parties  in  England.     Tlie  voice  of  the  people 

8 


34  Cicero  de  Ainicitia. 

utterly  alienated  from  the  Senate,  and  the  most  im- 
portant affairs  determined  by  the  will  of  the  multi- 
tude ;  for  more  persons  will  learn  how  these  things 
are  brought  about  than  how  they  may  be  resisted. 
To  what  purpose  am  I  saying  this  ?  Because  no 
one  makes  such  attempts  without  associates.  It  is 
therefore  to  be  enjoined  on  good  men  that  they 
must  not  think  themselves  so  bound  that  they  can- 
not renounce  their  friends  when  they  are  guilty  of 
crimes  against  the  State.  But  punishment  must  be 
inflicted  on  all  who  are  implicated  in  such  guilt,  — 
on  those  who  follow,  no  less  than  on  those  who  lead. 
Who  in  Greece  was  more  renowned  than  Themis- 
tocles*  ?  Who  had  greater  influence  than  he  had  ? 
When  as  commander  in  the  Persian  war  he  had 
freed  Greece  from  bondage,  and  for  envy  of  his 
fame  was  driven  into  exile,  he  did  not  bear  as  he 
ought  the  ill  treatment  of  his  ungrateful  country. 
He  did  what  Coriolanus  had  done  with  us  twenty 
years  before.  Neither  of  these  men  found  any 
helper  against  his   country  ;i  they  therefore   both 

was  for  the  ballot,  on  the  ground  that  it  made  suffrage  free,  as 
it  could  not  be  when  employers  or  patrons  could  dictate  to 
their  dependents  and  make  them  suffer  for  failure  to  vote  in 
favor  of  their  own  candidates  or  measures.  The  aristocratic 
party  opposed  the  ballot  as  fatal  to  their  controlling  influence, 
which  many  sincere  patriots,  like  Cicero,  regarded  as  essential 
to  the  public  safety,  while  patrician  demagogues,  intriguers, 
and  office-seekers  made  it  subservient  to  their  own  selfish  or 
partisan  interests. 

1  No  one  of  his  own  fellow-countrymen. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  35 

committed  suicide.^  Association  with  depraved 
men  for  such  an  end  is  not,  then,  to  be  shielded 
by  the  plea  of  friendship,  but  rather  to  be  avenged 
by  punishment  of  the  utmost  severity,  so  that  no 
one  may  ever  think  himself  authorized  to  follow  a 
friend  to  the  extent  of  making  war  upon  his  coun- 
try, —  an  extremity  wliich,  indeed,  considering  the 
course  that  our  public  affairs  have  begun  to  take, 
may,  for  aught  I  know,  be  reached  at  some  future 
time.  I  speak  thus  because  I  feel  no  less  concern 
for  the  fortunes  of  the  State  after  my  death  than 
as  to  its  present  condition. 

13.  Let  this,  then,  be  enacted  as  the  first  law  of 
friendship,  that  we  demand  of  friends  only  what  is 
right,  and  that  we  do  for  the  sake  of  friends  only 
what  is  right.2  This  understood,  let  us  not  wait 
to  be  asked.  Let  there  be  constant  assiduity  and 
no  loitering  in  a  friend's  service.  Let  us  also  dare 
to  give  advice  freely ;  for  in  friendship  the  authority 
of  friends  who  give  good  counsel  may  be  of  the 

1  If  the  story  of  Coriolanus  be  not  a  myth,  as  Niebuhr  sup- 
poses it  to  be,  his  suicide  forms  no  part  of  the  story  as  Livy  tells 
it.  The  suicide  of  Themistocles  is  related  as  a  supposition,  not 
as  an  established  fact.  If  he  died  by  poison,  as  was  said,  it  may 
have  been  administered  by  a  rival  in  the  favor  of  Artaxerxes. 

'^  This  is  a  virtual  repetition  of  the  law  of  friendsliip  announced 
at  the  beginning  of  the  previous  section,  and  Cicero  probably  so 
intended  it.  He  states  the  rule,  then  demonstrates  its  validity, 
then  repeats  it  in  an  almost  identical  form,  implying  what  the 
mathematician  expresses  when  he  puts  at  the  end  of  a  demonstra- 
tion Quod  erat  demonstraindum. 


36  Cicero  tie  Amicitia. 

greatest  value.  Let  admonition  be  administered, 
too,  not  only  in  plain  terms,  but  even  with  sever- 
ity, if  need  be,  and  let  heed  be  given  to  such  admo- 
nition. 

On  this  subject  some  things  that  appear  to  me 
strange  have,  as  I  am  told,  been  maintained  by 
certain  Greeks  who  are  accounted  as  philosophers, 
and  are  so  skilled  in  sophistry  that  there  is  noth- 
ing which  they  cannot  seem  to  prove.  Some  of 
them  hold  that  very  intimate  friendships  are  to  be 
avoided ;  that  there  is  no  need  that  one  feel  solici- 
tude for  others ;  that  it  is  enough  and  more  than 
enough  to  take  care  of  your  own  concerns,  and 
annoying  to  be  involved  to  any  considerable  extent 
in  affairs  not  belonging  to  you ;  that  the  best  way 
is  to  have  the  reins  of  friendship  as  loose  as  possi- 
ble, so  that  you  can  tighten  them  or  let  them  go  at 
pleasure ;  for,  according  to  them,  ease  is  the  chief 
essential  to  happy  living,  and  this  the  mind  cannot 
enjoy,  if  it  bears,  as  it  were,  the  pains  of  travail 
in  behalf  of  a  larger  or  smaller  circle  of  friends.^ 

1  This  passage  seems  to  be  a  paraphrase  of  a  passage  in  the 
Hippolytus  of  Euripides,  in  which  the  Nurse  says  :  "  It  behooves 
mortals  to  form  moderate  friendships  with  one  another,  and  not 
to  the  very  marrow  of  the  soul ;  and  the  affections  of  the  mind 
should  be  held  loosely,  so  that  we  may  slacken  or  tighten  them. 
That  one  soul  should  be  in  travail  for  two  is  a  heavy  burden." 
Euripides  was  regarded,  and  rightly,  as  no  less  a  philosopher  than 
a  tragedian,  and  was  not  infreipiently  styled  (ro<f>6s.  Cicero  here 
veils  his  thorough  conversance  with  Greek  literature  and  philoso- 
phy, and  assumes  the  part  of  Laelius,  in  whose  time,  though 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  37 

Others,^  I  am  told,  with  even  much  less  of  true 
human  feeling,  teach  what  I  touched  upon  hriefly  a 
a  little  while  ago,  that  friendships  are  to  be  sought 
for  defence  and  help,  not  on  account  of  good-will  and 
affection.  The  less  of  self-confidence  and  the  less 
of  strength  one  has,  the  more  is  he  inclined  to  make 
friends.  Thus  it  is  that  women  ^  seek  the  support 
of  friendship  more  than  men  do,  the  poor  more  than 
the  rich,  the  unfortunate  more  than  those  who  seem 
happy.  Oh,  pre-eminent  wisdom  !  It  is  like  taking 
the  sun  out  of  the  world,  to  bereave  human  life 
of  friendship,  than  which  the  immortal  gods  have 
given  man  nothing  better,  nothing  more  gladdening. 
What  is  the  ease  of  which  they  speak  ?  It  is  indeed 
pleasing  in  aspect,  but  on  many  occasions  it  is  to 
be  renounced  ;  for  it  is  not  fitting,  in  order  to  avoid 
solicitude,  either  to  refuse  to  undertake  any  right 
cause  or  act,  or  to  drop  it  after  it  is  undertaken.  If 
we  flee  from  care,  we  must  flee  from  virtue,  which 
of  necessity  with  no  little  care  spurns  and  abhors  its 
opposites,  as  goodness  spurns  and  abhors  wickedness ; 
temperance,  excess ;  courage,  cowardice.     Thus  you 

Greek  was  not  omitted  in  the  education  of  cultivated  men,  the 
study  was  comparatively  new,  and  was  not  carried  to  any  great 
extent. 

1  The  Epicureans. 

2  Latin,  mulierculae,  a  diminutive,  meaning,  however,  not  little 
•women,  but  denoting  the  feebleness  and  dependence  of  women  in 
comparison  with  men.  It  must  be  confessed,  too,  that  the  term 
is  sometimes  used,  and  perhaps  here,  semi-coutemptuously  ;  for 
the  Roman  man  felt  an  overweening  pride  in  mere  manhood. 


38  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

may  see  that  honest  men  are  excessively  grieved 
by  the  dishonest,  the  brave  by  the  pusillanimous, 
those  who  lead  sober  lives  by  the  dissolute.  It  is 
indeed  characteristic  of  a  well-ordered  mind  to  re- 
joice in  what  is  good  and  to  be  grieved  by  the  oppo- 
site. If,  then,  pain  of  mind  fall  to  the  lot  of  a  wise 
man,  as  it  must  of  necessity  unless  we  imagine  his 
mind  divested  of  its  humanity,  why  should  we  take 
friendship  wholly  out  of  life,  lest  we  experience 
some  little  trouble  on  account  of  it  ?  Yet  more  ;  if 
emotion  be  eliminated,  what  difference  is  there,  I 
say  not  between  a  man  and  a  brute,  but  betwe'en  a 
man  and  a  rock,  or  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  or  any  inani- 
mate object?  Nor  are  those  to  be  listened  to,  who 
regard  virtue  as- something  hard  and  iron-like.^  As 
in  many  other  matters,  so  in  friendship,  it  is  tender 
and  flexible,  so  that  it  expands,  as  it  were,  with  a 
friend's  well-being,  and  shrinks  when  his  peace  is 
disturbed.  Therefore  the  pain  which  must  often  be 
incurred  on  a  friend's  account  is  not  of  sufficient 
moment  to  banish  friendship  from  human  life,  any 
more  than  the  occasional  care  and  trouble  wliich 
the  virtues  bring  should  be  a  reason  for  renouncing 
them. 

14,  Since  virtue  attracts  friendship,  as  I  have 
said,  if  there  shines  forth  any  manifestation  of  vir- 

1  Here,  undoubtedly,  Cicero  refers  to  the  sterner  type  of  Stoi- 
cism, which  in  his  time  was  already  obsolescent,  and  was  yielding 
place  to  the  milder,  while  no  less  rigid,  ethics  of  which  the  De 
Officiis  may  be  regarded  as  the  manual. 


Cicero  cle  Amicitia.  39 

tue  with  which  a  mind  similarly  disposed  can  come 
into  contact  and  union,  from  such  intercourse  love 
must  of  necessity  spring.  For  what  is  so  absurd  as 
to  be  charmed  with  many  things  that  have  no  sub- 
stantial worth,  as  with  office,  fame,  architecture, 
dress,  and  genteel  appearance,  but  not  to  be  in  any 
wise  charmed  by  a  mind  endowed  with  virtue,  and 
capable  of  either  loving,  or  —  if  I  may  use  the 
M'ord  —  re-loving  ?  ^  Nothing  indeed  yields  a  richer 
revenue  than  kind  affections ;  nothing  gives  more 
delight  than  the  interchange  of  friendly  cares  and 
offices.  Then  if  we  add,  as  we  rightly  may,  that 
there  is  nothing  which  so  allures  and  attracts  aught 
else  to  itself  as  the  likeness  of  character  does  to 
friendship,  it  will  certainly  be  admitted  that  good 
men  love  good  men  and  adopt  them  into  fellowship, 
as  if  united  with  them  by  kindred  and  by  nature. 
By  nature,  I  say;  for  nothing  is  more  craving  or 
greedy  of  its  like  than  nature.  This,  then,  as  I 
think,  is  evident,  Fannius  and  Scaevola,  that  among 
the  good  toward  the  good  there  cannot  but  be  mu- 
tual kind  feeling,  and  in  this  we  have  a  fountain  of 
friendship  established  by  nature. 

But  the  same  kind  feeling  extends  to  the  commu- 
nity at  large.  For  virtue  is  not  unsympathetic,  nor 
unserviceable,^  nor  proud.  It  is  wont  even  to  watch 
over  the  well-being  of  whole  nations,  and  to  give 

1  Latin,  redamare,  a  word  coined  by  Cicero,  and  used  with  the 
apology,  ut  ita  dicam. 

*  Latin,  immunis,  literally,  without  office. 


40  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

them  the  wisest  counsel,  which  it  would  not  do  if 
it  had  no  love  for  the  people. 

Now  those  who  maintain  that  friendships  are 
formed  from  motives  of  utility  annul,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  the  most  endearing  bond  of  friendship ;  for  it 
is  not  so  much  benefit  obtained  through  a  friend  as 
it  is  the  very  love  of  the  friend  that  gives  delight. 
What  comes  from  a  friend  confers  pleasure,  only  in 
case  it  bears  tokens  of  his  interest  in  us ;  and  so 
far  is  it  from  the  truth  that  friendships  are  culti- 
vated from  a  sense  of  need,  that  those  fully  endowed 
with  wealth  and  resources,  especially  with  virtue, 
which  is  the  surest  safeguard,  and  thus  in  no  need 
of  friends,  are  the  very  persons  who  are  the  most 
generous  aftd  munificent.  Indeed,  I  hardly  know 
whether  it  may  not  be  desirable  that  our  friends 
should  never  have  need  of  our  services.  Yet  in  the 
case  of  Scipio  and  myself,  what  room  would  there 
have  been  for  the  active  exercise  of  my  zeal  in  his 
behalf,  had  he  never  needed  my  counsel  or  help  at 
home  or  in  the  field  ?  In  this  instance,  however, 
the  service  came  after  the  friendship,  not  the  friend- 
ship after  the  service. 

15.  If  these  things  are  so,  men  who  are  given  up 
to  pleasure  are  not  to  be  listened  to  when  they 
express  their  opinions  about  friendship,  of  which 
they  can  have  no  knowledge  either  by  experience  or 
by  reflection.  For,  by  the  faith  of  gods  and  men, 
who  is  there  that  would  be  willing  to  have  a  super- 
abundance of  all  objects  of  desire  and  to  live  in  the 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  41 

utmost  fulness  of  wealth  and  what  wealth  can  bring, 
on  condition  of  neither  loving  any  one  nor  being 
loved  by  any  one  ?  This,  indeed,  is  the  life  of 
tyrants,  in  which  there  is  no  good  faith,  no  affection, 
no  fixed  confidence  in  kindly  feeling,  perpetual  sus- 
picion and  anxiety,  and  no  room  for  friendship ;  for 
who  can  love  either  him  whom  he  fears,  or  him  by 
whom  he  thinks  that  he  is  feared  ?  Yet  they  re- 
ceive the  show  of  homage,  but  only  while  the  occa- 
sion for  it  lasts.^  If  they  chance  to  fall,  as  they 
commonly  have  fallen,  they  then  ascertain  how 
destitute  of  friends  they  have  been,  as  Tarquin  is 
reported  to  have  said  that  he  learned  what  faithful 
and  what  unfaithful  friends  he  had,  when  he  could 
no  longer  render  back  favors  to  those  of  either  class, 
—  although  I  wonder  whether  pride  and  insolence 
like  his  could  have  had  any  friends.  Moreover,  as 
his  character  could  not  have  won  real  friends,  so 
is  the  good  fortune  of  many  who  occupy  foremost 
places  of  influence  so  held  as  to  preclude  faith- 
ful friendships.  Not  only  is  Fortune  blind,  but  she 
generally  makes  those  blind  whom  she  embraces. 
Thus  they  are  almost  always  beside  themselves 
under  the  influence  of  haughtiness  and  wayward- 
ness ;  nor  can  there  be  created  anything  more 
utterly  insupportable  than  a  fortune-favored  fool. 
There  are  to  be  seen  those  who  previously  behaved 

1  Latin,  dum  taxed  ad  tempus;  that  is,  while  the  homage  ren- 
dered is  in  close  contact  with  the  occasion,  —  with  the  immunity 
or  profit  to  be  purchased  by  it. 


42  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

with  propriety  who  are  changed  by  station,  power, 
or  prosperity,  and  who  spurn  their  old  friendships 
and  lavish  indulgence  on  the  new.  But  what  is 
more  foolish  than  when  men  have  resources,  means, 
wealth  at  their  fullest  command,  and  can  obtain 
horses,  servants,  splendid  raiment,  costly  vases, 
whatever  money  can  buy,  for  them  not  to  procure 
friends,  who  are,  if  I  may  so  speak,  the  best  and 
the  most  beautiful  furniture  of  human  life  ?  Other 
things  which  a  man  may  procure  know  not  him  who 
procures  them,  nor  do  they  labor  for  his  sake,  — 
indeed,  they  belong  to  him  who  can  make  them  his 
by  the  riglit  of  superior  strength.  But  every  one 
has  his  own  firm  and  sure  possession  of  his  friend- 
ships ;  while  even  if  those  things  which  seem  the 
gifts  of  fortune  remain,  still  life  unadorned  and 
deserted  by  friends  cannot  be  happy.  But  enough 
has  been  said  on  this  branch  of  our  subject. 

16.  We  must  now  determine  the  limits  or  bounds 
of  friendship.  On  this  subject  I  find  three  opinions 
proposed,  neither  of  which  has  my  approval,  —  the 
first,  that  we  should  do  for  our  friends  just  what  we 
would  do  for  ourselves;  the  second,  that  our  good 
offices  to  our  friends  should  correspond  in  quantity 
and  quality  to  those  which  they  perform  for  us ; 
the  third,  that  one's  friends  should  value  him 
according  to  his  own  self-estimate.  I  cannot  give 
unqualified  assent  to  either  of  these  opinions.  Tiie 
first  —  that  one  should  be  ready  to  do  for  his 
friends  precisely  what  he  would  do  for  himself  —  is 


Cicero  de  Amicitia,  43 

inadmissible.  How  many  things  tliere  are  that  we 
do  for  our  friends  which  we  should  never  do  on  our 
own  account !  —  such  as  making  a  request,  even  an 
entreaty,  of  a  man  unworthy  of  respect,  or  inveigh- 
ing against  some  person  with  a  degree  of  bitterness, 
nay,  in  terms  of  vehement  reproach.  In  fine,  we 
are  perfectly  right  in  doing  in  behalf  of  a  friend 
things  that  in  our  own  case  would  be  decidedly 
unbecoming.  There  are  also  many  ways  in  which 
good  men  detract  largely  from  their  own  comfort,  or 
suffer  it  to  be  impaired,  that  a  friend  may  have  the 
enjoyment  which  they  sacrifice.  The  second  opin- 
ion is  that  wliich  limits  kind  offices  and  good-will 
by  the  rule  of  equality.  This  is  simply  making 
friendship  a  matter  of  calculation,  with  the  view  of 
keeping  a  debtor  and  creditor  account  evenly  bal- 
anced. To  me  friendship  seems  more  affluent  and 
generous,  and  not  disposed  to  keep  strict  watch  lest 
it  may  give  more  than  it  receives,  and  to  fear  that 
a  part  of  its  due  may  be  spilled  over  or  suffered  to 
leak  out,  or  that  it  may  heap  up  its  own  measure 
over-full  in  return.^  But  worst  of  all  is  the  third 
limit,  which  prescribes  that  friends  shall  take  a 
man's  opinion  of  himself  as  a  measure  for  their  esti- 
mate and  treatment  of  him.     There  are  some  per- 

1  We  have  here,  first,  a  figure  drawn  from  pecuniary  accounts, 
then  one  from  liquid  measure,  then  one  from  dry  measure,  —  all 
designed  to  affix  the  brand  of  the  most  petty  meanness  on  the  (so- 
called)  friendship  which  makes  it  a  point  neither  to  leave  nor  to 
brook  a  preponderance  of  obligation  on  either  side. 


44  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

sons  who  are  liable  to  fits  of  depression,  or  who  have 
little  hope  of  better  fortune  than  the  present.  In 
such  a  case,  it  is  the  part  of  a  friend,  not  to  hold  the 
position  toward  his  friend  which  he  holds  toward 
himself,  but  to  make  the  efficient  endeavor  to  rouse 
him  from  his  despondency,  and  to  lead  him  to 
better  hope  and  a  more  cheerful  train  of  thought. 
It  remains  for  me,  then,  to  establish  another  limit 
of  friendship.  But  first  let  me  tell  you  what  Scipio 
was  wont  to  speak  of  with  the  severest  censure. 
He  maintained  that  no  utterance  could  have  been 
invented  more  inimical  to  friendship  ^  than  that  of 
him  who  said  that  one  ought  to  love  as  if  he  were 
going  at  some  future  time  to  hate ;  nor  could  he  be 
brought  to  believe  that  this  maxim  came,  as  was 
reported,  from  Bias,  who  was  one  of  the  seven  wise 
men,  but  he  regarded  it  as  having  proceeded  from 
some  sordid  person,  who  was  either  inordinately  am- 
bitious, or  desirous  of  bringing  everything  under  his 
own  control.  For  how  can  one  be  a  friend  to  him 
to  whom  he  thinks  that  he  may  possibly  become  an 
enemy  ?  In  this  case  one  would  of  necessity  desire 
and  choose  that  his  friend  should  commit  offences 
very  frequently,  so  as  to  give  him,  so  to  speak,  the 
more  numerous  handles  for  fault-finding ;  and  on 
the  other  hand  one  would  be  vexed,  pained,  ag- 
grieved by  all  the  right  and  fitting  things  that 
friends  do.  This  precept,  then,  from  whomsoever  it 
came,  amounts  to  the  annulling  of  friendship.  The 
1  Latin,  inimidorem  (that  is,  in-amiciorem)  amicitiae. 


Cicero  dc  Amicitia.  45 

proper  rule  should  be,  that  we  exercise  so  much 
caution  in  forming  friendships,  that  we  should  never 
begin  to  love  a  friend  whom  it  is  possible  that  we 
should  ever  hate ;  but  even  in  case  we  should  have 
been  unfortunate  in  our  choice,  Scipio  thought  that 
it  would  be  wiser  to  bear  the  disappointment  when 
it  comes  than  to  keep  the  contingency  of  future 
alienation  in  view. 

17.  I  would  then  define  the  terms  of  friendship 
by  saying  that,  where  friends  are  of  blameless 
character,  there  may  fittingly  be  between  them  a 
community  of  all  interests,  plans,  and  purposes, 
without  any  exception,  even  so  far  that,  if  perchance 
there  be  occasion  for  furthering  the  not  entirely 
right  wishes  of  friends  when  life  or  reputation  is  at 
stake,  one  may  in  their  behalf  deviate  somewhat 
from  a  perfectly  straight  course,^  yet  not  so  far  as  to 

1  Tliis  at  first  sight  appears  like  a  license  to  yield  up  moral 
considerations  to  friendsliip,  though  the  qualification,  in  the  se- 
quel, "not  so  far  as  to  incur  absolute  dishonor,"  and  "virtue  is 
by  no  means  to  be  sacrificed,"  seem  saving  clauses.  But  Cicero 
certainly  has  a  right  to  be  his  own  interpreter,  since  in  the  De 
Officiis,  as  I  think,  he  explains  in  full,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
highest  moral  principle,  what  he  means  here  ;  and  we  have  a 
double  right  to  insist  on  this  interpretation,  first,  because  the  De 
Officiis  was  \vritten  so  very  little  while  after  the  De  Amicitia,  and 
both  at  so  ripe  an  age,  that  a  change  of  opinion  on  important  mat- 
ters was  improbable,  and,  secondly,  because  in  the  later  treatise  he 
expressly  refers  to  the  former  as  giving  in  full  his  views  on  friend- 
ship, and  thus  virtually  sanctions  that  treatise.  Now  in  the  De 
Officiis  he  says  :  "  A  good  man  will  do  nothing  against  the  State, 
or  in  violation  of  his  oath  or  of  good  faith,,  for  the  sake  of  his 


46  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

incur  absolute  dishonor.  There  is  a  point  up  to 
which  a  concession  made  to  friendship  is  venial. 
But  we  are  not  bound  to  be  careless  of  our  own 
reputation,  nor  ought  we  to  regard  the  esteem  of 
our  fellow-citizens  as  an  instrument  of  small  impor- 
tance in  the  management  of  such  affairs  as  devolve 
upon  us,  —  an  esteem  which  it  is  base  to  conciliate  ^ 
by  flattery  and  fawning.  Virtue,  which  has  the 
sincere  regard  of  the  people  as  its  consequence,  is 
by  no  means  to  be  sacrificed  to  friendship. 

friend,  not  even  if  he  were  a  judge  in  his  friend's  case.  .  .  ,  He 
will  yield  so  far  to  friendship  as  to  wish  his  friend's  case  to  be 
worthy  of  succeeding,  and  to  accommodate  him  as  to  the  time  of 
trial,  within  legal  limits.  But  inasmuch  as  he  must  give  sentence 
upon  his  oath,  he  will  bear  it  in  mind  that  he  has  God  for  a  wit- 
ness." In  another  passage  of  the  Dc  Officiis,  Cicero  asserts,  some- 
what hesitatingly,  yet  on  the  authority  of  Panaetius  as  the 
strictest  of  Stoics,  the  moral  rightfulness  of  "defending  on  some 
occasions  a  guilty  man,  if  he  be  not  utterly  depraved  and  false  to 
all  human  relations."  As  in  the  passage  on  which  I  am  comment- 
ing special  reference  is  made  to  the  peril  of  life  or  reputation,  what 
Cicero  contends  for,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  right  of  defending  a 
guilty  friend  as  an  advocate,  or  of  favoring  him  as  to  time  and 
mode  of  trial  as  a  judge.  Aulas  Gellius,  in  connection  with  this 
passage  in  the  De  Amicitia,  tells  the  following  story  of  Chilo,  who 
was  on  some  of  the  lists  of  the  seven  wise  men.  C])ilo,  on  the 
last  day  of  his  life,  said  that  the  only  thing  that  gave  him  uneasy 
thought,  and  was  bui'densome  to  his  conscience,  was  that  once 
when  lie  and  two  other  men  were  judges  in  a  case  in  which  a  friend 
of  his  was  on  trial  for  a  capital  crime,  he,  in  accordance  with  his  own 
conviction,  voted  his  friend  guilty,  but  so  influenced  the  minds  of 
his  two  associates  that  they  gave  their  voice  for  his  acquittal. 

1  Latin,  colligere,  to  collect,  or  gather  up,  one  by  one,  the  good- 
will of  each  individual  citizen. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  47 

But,  to  return  to  Scipio,  who  was  all  the  time 
talking  about  friendship,  he  often  complained  that 
men  exercised  greater  care  about  all  other  matters ; 
that  one  could  always  tell  how  many  goats  and 
sheep  he  had,  but  could  not  tell  how  many  friends 
he  had  ;  and  that  men  were  careful  in  selecting  their 
beasts,  but  were  negligent  in  the  choice  of  friends, 
and  had  nothing  like  marks  and  tokens  ^  by  which 
to  determine  the  fitness  of  friends. 

Firm,  steadfast,  self-consistent  men  are  to  be 
chosen  as  friends,  and  of  this  kind  of  men  there  is 
a  great  dearth.  It  is  very  difficult  to  judge  of  char- 
acter before  we  have  tested  it ;  but  we  can  test  it 
only  after  friendship  is  begun.  Thus  friendship  is 
prone  to  outrun  judgment,  and  to  render  a  fair  trial 
impossible.  It  is  therefore  the  part  of  a  wise  man 
to  arrest  the  impulse  of  kindly  feeling,  as  we  check 
a  carriage  in  its  course,  that,  as  we  use  only  horses 
that  have  been  tried,  so  we  may  avail  ourselves  of 
friendships  in  which  the  characters  of  our  friends 
have  been  somehow  put  to  the  test.  Some  readily 
show  how  fickle  their  friendsliip  is  in  paltry  pecuni- 
ary matters ;  others,  whom  a  slight  consideration  of 
that  kind  cannot  influence,  betray  themselves  when 
a  large  amount  is  involved.  But  if  some  can  be 
found  who  think  it  mean  to  prefer  money  to  ft*iend- 
ship,  where  shaU  we  come  upon  those  who  do  not 
put  honors,  civic  offices,  military  commands,  places 

1  Latin,  signa  el  nofas,  the  marks  and  tokens  by  which  the 
quality  and  worth  of  goats  and  sheep  were  estimated. 


48  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

of  power  and  trust,  before  friendship,  so  that  when 
these  are  offered  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  claims 
of  friendship  on  the  other,  they  will  much  rather 
make  choice  of  the  objects  of  ambition  ?  For  na- 
ture is  too  feeble  to  despise  a  commanding  station  ; 
and  even  though  it  be  obtained  by  the  violation  of 
friendship,  men  think  that  this  fault  will  be  thrown 
into  obscurity,  because  it  was  not  without  a  weighty 
motive  that  they  held  friendship  in  abeyance.  Thus 
true  friendships  are  rare  among  those  who  are  in 
public  office,  and  concerned  in  the  affairs  of  the 
State.  For  where  will  you  find  him  who  prefers  a 
friend's  promotion  to  his  own  ?  What  more  shall 
I  say  ?  Not  to  dwell  longer  on  the  influence  of 
ambition  upon  friendship,  how  burdensome,  how 
difficult  does  it  seem  to  most  men  to  share  misfor- 
tunes !  to  which  it  is  not  easy  to  find  those  who  are 
willing  to  stoop.  Although  Ennius  is  right  in  say- 
ing, 

"  In  unsure  fortune  a  sure  friend  is  seen," 

yet  one  of  these  two  things  convicts  most  persons 
of  fickleness  and  weakness,  —  either  their  despising 
their  friends  when  they  themselves  are  prosperous, 
or  deserting  their  friends  in  adversity. 

18.  Him,  then,  who  alike  in  either  event  shall 
have  shown  himself  unwavering,  constant,  firm  in 
friendship,  we  ought  to  regard  as  of  an  exceedingly 
rare  and  almost  divine  order  of  men. 

Still  further,  good  faith  is  essential  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  stability  and  constancy  which  we 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  49 

demand  in  friendship ;  for  nothing  that  is  unfaith- 
ful is  stable.  It  is,  moreover,  fitting  to  choose  for 
a  friend  one  who  is  frank,  affable,  accommodating, 
interested  in  the  same  things  with  ourselves,  —  all 
which  qualities  come  under  the  head  of  fidelity ;  for 
a  changeful  and  wily  disposition  cannot  be  faithful, 
nor  can  he  who  has  not  like  interests  and  a  kindred 
nature  with  his  friend  be  either  faithful  or  stable. 
I  ought  to  add  that  a  friend  should  neither  take 
pleasure  in  finding  fault  with  his  friend,  nor  give 
credit  to  the  charges  which  others  may  bring  against 
him,  —  all  which  is  implied  in  the  constancy  of 
which  I  have  been  speaking.  Thus  we  come  back 
to  the  truth  which  I  announced  at  the  beginning 
of  our  conversation,  that  friendsliip  can  exist  only 
between  the  good.  It  is,  indeed,  the  part  of  a  good 
or  —  what  is  the  same  thing  —  a  wise  man  ^  to 
adhere  to  these  two  principles  in  friendship,  —  first, 
that  he  tolerate  no  feigning  or  dissembling  (for  an 
ingenuous  man  will  rather  show  even  open  hatred 
than  hide  his  feeling  by  his  face);  and,  secondly, 
that  he  not  only  repel  charges  made  against  his 
friend  by  others,  but  that  he  be  not  himself  suspi- 
cious, and  always  thinking  that  his  friend  has  done 
something  unfriendly. 

To  these  requisites  there  may  well  be  added 
suavity  of  speech  and  manners,  which  is  of  no  little 
worth  as  giving  a  relish  to  the  intercourse  of  friend- 
ship,    Eigidness  and  austerity  of  demeanor  on  every 

1  "Wisdom  and  goodness  were  identical  with  the  Stoics. 
4 


50  Cicero  cle  Amicitia. 

occasion  indeed  carry  weight  with  them ;  hut  friend- 
ship ought  to  be  more  gentle  and  mild,  and  more 
inclined  to  all  that  is  genial  and  afifable. 

19.  There  occurs  here  a  question  by  no  means 
difficult,^  whether  at  any  time  new  friends  worthy 
of  our  love  are  to  be  preferred  to  the  old,  as  we 
are  wont  to  prefer  young  horses  to  those  that  have 
passed  their  prime.  Shame  that  there  should  be 
hesitation  as  to  the  answer!  There  ought  to  be 
no  satiety  of  friendships,  as  there  is  rightly  of 
many  other  things.  The  older  a  friendship  is,  the 
more  precious  should  it  be,  as  is  the  case  with 
wines  that  will  bear  keeping ;  ^  and  there  is  truth 
in  the  proverb,  that  many  pecks  of  salt  must  be 
eaten  together  to  bring  friendship  to  perfection.^ 
If  new  friendships  offer  the  hope  of  fruit,  like 
the  young  shoots  in  the  grain-field  that  give  prom- 
ise of  harvest,  they  are  not  indeed  to  be  spurned  ; 
yet  the  old  are  to  be  kept  in  their  place.     There 

1  Latin,  subdifficilis,  which  I  should  render  somewhat  difficult, 
did  not  Cicero  treat  the  question  as  one  that  presents  no  diffi- 
culty. In  the  ancient  tongues,  as  in  our  own,  or  even  more  than 
in  our  own,  a  word  is  often  better  defined  by  its  use  than  in  the 
dictionary. 

2  Some  of  the  best  Italian  wines  will  not  "  bear  keeping,"  and 
it  was  probably  true  of  more  of  them  in  Cicero's  time  than  now 
that  wines  are  so  often  vitiated  by  strong  alcoholic  mixtures  in 
order  to  preserve  them.  Cato,  in  his  De  Be  Rustica,  prescribes  a 
method  of  determining  whether  the  wine  of  any  given  vintage 
will  "  keep." 

8  Aristotle  quotes  this  as  a  proverbial  saying,  so  that  it  must 
be  of  very  great  antiquity. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  51 

is  very  great  power  in  long  habit.  To  recur  to 
the  horse,  there  is  no  one  who  would  not  rather 
use  the  horse  to  which  he  has  become  accus- 
tomed, if  he  is  still  sound,  than  one  unbroken 
and  new.  Nor  has  habit  this  power  merely  as 
to  the  movements  of  an  animal ;  it  prevails  no 
less  as  to  inanimate  objects.  We  are  charmed 
with  the  places,  though  mountainous  and  woody,^ 
where  we  have  made  a  long  sojourn.  But  what  is 
most  remarkable  in  friendship  is  that  it  puts  a 
man  on  an  equality  with  his  inferior.  For  there 
often  are  in  a  circle  of  friends  those  who  excel  the 
rest,  as  was  the  case  with  Scipio  in  our  flock,  if  I 
may  use  the  word.  He  never  assumed  superiority 
over  Philus,  never  over  Eupilius,  never  over  Mum- 
mius,  never  over  friends  of  an  order  lower  than  his 
own.  Indeed  he  always  reverenced  as  a  superior, 
because  older  than  himself,  his  brother  Quintus 
Maximus,^  a  thoroughly  worthy  man,  but  by  no 
means  his  equal ;  and  in  fact  he  wanted  to  make  all 
his  friends  of  the  more  consequence  by  whatever 
advantages  he  himself  possessed.  This  example  all 
ought  to  imitate,  that  if  they  have  attained  any  su- 
periority of  virtue,  genius,  fortune,  they  may  impart 

1  Therefore  uninviting  ;  for  mountain  and  forest  had  not  in 
early  time  the  charm  which  we  find  in  them.  Indeed,  the  love 
of  nature  uncultivated  and  unadorned  is,  for  the  most  part,  of 
modern  growth. 

2  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  Aemilianus,  the  eldest  son  of 
Aemilius  Paulus,  and  the  adopted  son  of  Fabius  Maximus. 


52  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

it  to  and  share  it  with  those  with  whom  they  are 
the  most  closely  connected ;  and  that  if  they  are 
of  humble  parentage,  and  have  kindred  of  slender 
ability  or  fortune,  they  may  increase  their  means 
of  well-being,  and  reflect  honor  and  worth  upon 
them,  —  as  in  fable  those  who  were  long  in  servile 
condition  through  ignorance  of  their  parentage  and 
race,  when  they  were  recognized  and  found  to  be 
sons  either  of  gods  or  of  kings,  retained  their  love 
for  the  shepherds  whom  for  many  years  they  sup- 
posed to  be  their  fathers.  Much  more  ought  the 
like  to  be  done  in  the  case  of  real  and  well-known 
fathers ;  for  the  best  fruit  of  genius,  and  virtue,  and 
every  kind  of  excellence  is  reaped  when  it  is  thus 
bestowed  on  near  kindred  and  friends. 

20.  Moreover,  as  among  persons  bound  by  ties  of 
friendship  and  intimacy  those  who  hold  the  higher 
place  ought  to  bring  themselves  down  to  the  same 
plane  with  their  inferiors,  so  ought  these  last  not  to 
feel  aggrieved  because  they  are  surpassed  in  ability, 
or  fortune,  or  rank  by  their  friends.  Most  of  them, 
however,  are  always  finding  some  ground  of  com- 
plaint, or  even  of  reproach,  especially  if  they  can 
plead  any  service  that  they  have  rendered  faithfully, 
ill  a  friendly  way,  and  with  a  certain  amount  of 
painstaking  on  their  part.  Such  men,  indeed,  are 
hateful  when  they  reproach  their  friends  on  the 
score  of  services  which  he  on  whom  they  were 
bestowed  ought  to  bear  in  mind,  but  which  it  is 
unbecoming  for  him  who  conferred  them  to  recount. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  53 

Those  who  are  superior  ought,  undoubtedly,  not  only 
to  waive  all  pretension  in  friendly  intercourse,  but  to 
do  what  they  can  to  raise  their  humbler  friends  to 
their  own  level.^  There  are  some  who  give  their 
friends  trouble  by  imagining  that  they  are  held  in 
low  esteem,  which,  however,  is  not  apt  to  be  the 
case  except  with  those  who  think  meanly  of  them- 
selves. Those  who  feel  thus  ought  to  be  raised  to 
a  just  self-esteem,  not  only  by  kind  words,  but 
by  substantial  service.  But  what  you  do  for  any 
one  must  be  measured,  first  by  your  OAvn  ability, 
and  then  by  the  capacity  of  him  whom  you  would 
favor  and  help.  For,  however  great  your  influence 
may  be,  you  cannot  raise  all  your  friends  to  the 
highest  positions.  Thus  Scipio  could  effect  the 
election  of  Publius  Eupilius  to  the  consulship  ;  but 
he  could  not  do  the  same  for  his  brother  Lucius.^ 
In  general,  friendships  tliat  are  properly  so  called 
are  formed  between  persons  of  mature  years  and 
established  character;  nor  if  young  men  have  been 
fond  of  hunting  or  of  ball-playing,  is  there  any  need 
of  permanent  attachment  to  those  whom  they  then 
liked  as  associates  in  the  same  sport.  On  this  prin- 
ciple our  nurses  and  the  slaves  that  led  us  to  school 
will  demand  by  right  of  priority  the  highest  grade 

1  Or,  as  it  might  be  rendered  by  suppljdng  a  se,  "so  ought  the 
humbler  to  do  what  they  can  to  raise  themselves."  Some  of  the 
commentators  prefer  this  sense  ;  but  if  Cicero  meant  se,  I  think 
that  he  would  have  written  it. 

2  The  brother  of  Publius  Rupilius,  not  his  own  brother. 


54  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

of  affectionate  regard,  —  persons,  indeed,  who  are 
not  to  be  neglected,  but  who  are  on  a  somewhat 
different  footing  from  that  of  friends.  Friendships 
formed  solely  from  early  associations  cannot  last ; 
for  differences  of  character  grow  out  of  a  diversity 
of  pursuits,  and  unlikeness  of  character  dissolves 
friendships.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  good 
men  cannot  be  the  friends  of  bad  men,  or  bad  men 
of  good,  except  that  the  dissiliency  of  pursuits 
and  of  character  between  them  is  as  great  as  it 
can  be. 

It  is  also  a  counsel  worthy  of  heed,  that  excessive 
fondness  be  not  suffered  to  interfere,  as  it  does  too 
often,  with  important  services  that  a  friend  can  ren- 
der. To  resort  again  to  fable,  Neoptolemus  could 
not  have  taken  Troy  ^  if  he  had  chosen  to  comply 
with  the  wishes  of  Lycomedes,  who  brought  him 
up,  and  who  with  many  tears  attempted  to  dissuade 
him  from  his  expedition.  Equally  in  actual  life 
there  are  not  infrequently  important  occasions  on 
which  the  society  of  friends  must  be  for  a  time 
abandoned  ;  and  he  who  would  prevent  this  because 
he  cannot  easily  bear  the  separation,  is  of  a  weak 
and  unmanly  nature,  and  for  that  very  reason  unfit 
to  fill  the  place  of  a  friend.  In  fine,  in  all  matters 
you  should  take  into  consideration  both  what  you 
may  reasonably  demand  of  your  friend,  and  what 
you  can  fitly  suffer  him  to  obtain  from  you. 

1  Or  rather,  could  not  have  borne  the  indispensable  part  which 
it  was  predicted  that  he  should  bear  in  the  taking  of  Troy. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  55 

21:  The  misfortune  involved  in  the  dissolution 
of  friendships  is  sometimes  unavoidable  ;  for  I  am 
now  coming  down  from  the  intimacies  of  wise  men 
to  common  friendships.  Paults  of  friends  often  be- 
tray themselves  openly  —  whether  to  the  injury  of 
their  friends  themselves,  or  of  strangers  —  in  such  a 
way  that  the  disgrace  falls  back  upon  their  friends. 
Such  friendships  are  to  be  effaced  by  the  suspension 
of  intercourse,  and,  as  I  have  heard  Cato  say,  to  be 
unstitched  rather  than  cut  asunder,  unless  some 
quite  intolerable  offence  flames  out  to  full  view,  so 
that  it  can  be  neither  right  nor  honorable  not  to 
effect  an  immediate  separation  and  dissevering.  But 
if  there  shall  have  been  some  change  either  in  char^ 
acter  or  in  the  habits  of  life,  or  if  there  have  sprung 
up  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  public  affairs, 
—  I  am  speaking,  as  I  have  just  said,  of  common 
friendships,  not  of  those  between  wise  men,  —  care 
should  be  taken  lest  there  be  the  appearance,  not 
only  of  friendship  dropped,  but  of  enmity  taken  up; 
for  nothing  is  more  unbecoming  than  to  wage  war 
with  a  man  with  whom  you  have  lived  on  terms 
of  intimacy.  Scipio,  as  you  know,  had  withdrawn 
from  the  friendship  of  Quintus  Pompeius  ^  on  my 

1  Laelius  intending  to  present  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the 
consulship,  Scipio  asked  Pompeius  -whether  he  was  going  to  be  a 
candidate,  and  when  he  replied  in  the  negative,  asked  him  to  use 
his  influence  in  behalf  of  Laelius.  This  Pompeius  promised,  and 
then,  instead  of  being  tnie  to  his  word,  offered  himself  for  the 
consulship,  and  was  elected. 


56  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

account;  he  became  alienated  from  Metellus'^  be- 
cause of  their  different  views  as  to  the  administra- 
tion of  the  State.  In  both  cases  he  conducted  him- 
self with  gravity  and  dignity,  and  without  any 
feeling  of  bitterness.  The  endeavor,  then,  must 
first  be,  to  prevent  discord  from  taking  place  among 
friends,  and  if  anything  of  the  kind  occurs,  to  see 
that  the  friendship  may  seem  to  be  extinguished 
rather  than  crushed  out.  Care  must  thus  be  taken 
lest  friendships  lapse  into  violent  enmities,  whence 
are  generated  quarrels,  slanders,  insults,  which  yet, 
if  not  utterly  intolerable,  are  to  be  endured,  and 
this  honor  rendered  to  old  friendship,  that  the 
blame  may  rest  with  him  who  does,  not  with  him 
who  suffers,  the  wrong. 

The  one  surety  and  preventive  against  these  mis- 
takes and  misfortunes  is,  not  to  form  attachments 
too  soon,  nor  for  those  unworthy  of  such  regard. 

But  it  is  those  in  whose  very  selves  there  is  rea- 
son why  they  should  be  loved,  that  are  worthy  of 
friendship.  A  rare  class  of  men !  Indeed,  super- 
latively excellent  objects  of  every  sort  are  rare,  nor 
is  anything  more  difficult  than  to  discover  that 
which  is  in  all  respects  perfect  in  its  kind.  But 
most  persons  have  acquired  the  habit  of  recognizing 

1  Scipio  and  Metellus,  though  their  intimacy  was  suspended 
for  political  reasons,  held  each  other  in  the  highest  regard  ;  and  no 
person  in  Eome  expressed  profounder  sorrow  than  Metellus  for 
Scipio's  death,  or  was  more  warm  in  his  praise  as  a  man  of  un- 
paralleled ability,  worth,  and  patriotism. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  67 

nothing  as  good  in  human  relations  and  affairs  that 
does  not  produce  some  revenue,  and  they  most  love 
those  friends,  as  they  do  those  cattle,  that  will  yield 
them  the  greatest  gain.  Thus  they  lack  that  most 
beautiful  and  most  natural  friendship,  which  is  to 
be  sought  in  itself  and  for  its  own  sake ;  nor  can 
they  know  from  experience  what  and  how  great  is 
the  power  of  such  friendship.  One  loves  himself, 
not  in  order  to  exact  from  himself  any  wages  for 
such  love,  but  because  he  is  in  himself  dear  to  him- 
self Now,  unless  this  same  property  be  transfeiTed 
to  friendship,  a  true  friend  will  never  be  found  ;  for 
such  a  friend  is,  as  it  were,  another  self.  But  if  it 
is  seen  in  beasts,  birds,  fishes,  animals  tame  and 
wild,  that  they  first  love  themselves  (for  self-love  is 
born  with  everything  that  lives),  and  that  they  then 
require  and  seek  those  of  their  kind  to  whom  they 
may  attach  themselves,  and  do  so  with  desire  and 
with  a  certain  semblance  of  human  love,  how  much 
more  is  this  natural  in  man,  who  both  loves  him- 
self, and  craves  another  whose  soul  he  may  so  blend 
with  his  own  as  almost  to  make  one  out  of  two ! 

22.  But  men  in  general  are  so  perverse,  not  to 
say  shameless,  as  to  wish  a  friend  to  be  in  character 
what  they  themselves  could  not  be,  and  they  expect 
of  friends  what  tliey  do  not  give  them  in  return. 
The  proper  course,  however,  is  for  one  first  to  be 
himself  a  good  man,  and  then  to  seek  another 
like  himself  In  such  persons  the  stability  of 
friendship,  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  can  be 


58  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

made  sure,  since,  united  in  mutual  love,  they  will, 
in  the  first  place,  hold  in  subjection  the  desires  to 
which  others  are  enslaved ;  then  they  will  find  de- 
light in  whatever  is  equitable  and  just,  and  each 
will  take  upon  himself  any  labor  or  burden  in  the 
other's  stead,  while  neither  will  ever  ask  of  the  other 
aught  that  is  not  honorable  and  right.  Nor  will 
they  merely  cherish  and  love,  they  will  even  rever- 
ence each  other.  But  he  who  bereaves  friendship 
of  mutual  respect  ^  takes  from  it  its  greatest  orna- 
ment. Therefore  those  are  in  fatal  error  who  think 
that  in  friendship  there  is  free  license  for  all  lusts 
and  evil  practices.  Friendship  is  given  by  nature, 
not  as  a  companion  of  the  vices,  but  as  a  helper  of 
the  virtues,  that,  as  solitary  virtue  might  not  be  able 
to  attain  the  summit  of  excellence,  united  and  asso- 
ciated with  another  it  might  reach  that  eminence. 
As  to  those  between  whom  there  is,  or  has  been, 
or  shall  be  such  an  alliance,  the  fellowship  is  to  be 
regarded  as  the  best  and  happiest  possible,  inas- 
much as  it  leads  to  the  highest  good  that  nature 
can  bestow.  This  is  the  alliance,  I  say,  in  which 
are  included  all  things  that  men  think  worthy  their 
endeavor, — honor,  fame,  peace  of  mind,  and  pleasure, 
80  that  if  these  be  present  life  is  happy,  and  cannot 
be  happy  without  them.     Such  a  life  being  the  best 

^  Latin,  verecundia,  an  indefinite  word ;  for  it  may  have  almost 
any  good  meaning.  1  liave  rendered  it  respect,  because  I  have  no 
doubt  that  it  derives  its  meaning  here  from  vcrebuntur,  which  I 
have  rendered  reverence,  in  the  preceding  sentence. 


Cicero  de  Amiciiia.  59 

and  greatest  boon,  if  we  wish  to  make  it  ours,  we 
must  devote  ourselves  to  the  cultivation  of  virtue, 
without  which  we  can  attain  neither  friendship  nor 
anything  else  desirable.  But  if  virtue  be  left  out 
of  the  account,  those  who  think  that  they  have 
friends  perceive  that  they  are  mistaken  when  some 
important  crisis  compels  tliem  to  put  their  friends 
to  the  test.  Therefore  —  for  it  is  worth  reiterating 
—  you  ought  to  love  after  having  exercised  your 
judgment  on  your  friends,  instead  of  forming  your 
judgment  of  them  after  you  have  begun  to  love 
them.  But  while  in  many  things  we  are  charge- 
able with  carelessness,  we  are  most  so  in  choosing 
and  keeping  our  friends.  We  reverse  the  old 
proverb,^  take  counsel  after  acting,  and  attempt  to 
do  over  again  what  we  have  done ;  for  after  having 
become  closely  connected  by  long  habit  and  even 
by  mutual  services,  some  occasion  of  offence  springs 
up,  and  we  suddenly  break  in  sunder  a  friendship 
in  full  career. 

23.  The  more  blameworthy  are  they  who  are  so 
very  careless  in  a  matter  of  so  essential  importance. 
Indeed,  among  things  appertaining  to  human  life, 
it  is  friendship  alone  that  has  the  unanimous  voice 

1  What  this  proverb  may  have  been  we  cannot  determine  with 
precision  from  its  opposite  ;  but  the  caution  based  upon  it  might 
remind  one  of  our  proverb  about  shutting  the  barn-door  after  the 
horse  is  stolen.  The  words,  acta  agirmis,  so  terse  that  they  can 
be  translated  only  by  a  paraphrase,  are  probably  the  converse  of 
the  proverb,  which  may  have  been  something  like  non  agenda 
sunt  acta. 


60  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

of  all  men  as  to.  its  capacity  of  service.  By  many 
even  virtue  is  scorned,  and  is  said  to  be  a  niere 
matter  of  display  and  ostentation.  Many  despise 
wealth,  and,  contented  with  little,  take  pleasure  in 
slender  diet  and  inexpensive  living.  Though  some 
are  inflamed  with  desire  for  office,  many  there  are 
who  hold  it  in  so  low  esteem  that  they  can  imagine 
nothing  more  inane  or  worthless.  Other  things, 
too,  which  seem  to  some  admirable,  very  many  re- 
gard as  of  no  value.  But  all  have  the  same  feeling 
as  to  friendship,  —  alike  those  who  devote  them- 
selves to  the  public  service,  those  who  take  delight 
in  learning  and  pliilosophy,  those  who  manage  their 
own  affairs  in  a  quiet  way,  and,  lastly,  those  who 
are  wholly  given  up  to  sensual  pleasure.  They  all 
agree  that  without  friendship  life  cannot  be,  if  one 
only  means  to  live  in  some  form  or  measure  respect- 
ably.^ For  friendship  somehow  twines  through  all 
lives,  and  leaves  no  mode  of  being  without  its  pres- 
ence. Even  if  one  be  of  so  rude  and  savage  a  na- 
ture as  to  shun  and  hate  the  society  of  men,  as 
we  have  learned  was  the  case  with  that  Timon  of 
Athens,^  if  there   ever  was  such   a   man,^  he  yet 

1  Latin,  libcraliter ;  that  is,  worthily  of  a  free  man. 

2  Plutarch  says  that  Timon  had  an  associate,  virtually  a  friend, 
not  unlike  himself,  Apemantus,  on  whom  he  freely  vented  his 
spite  and  scorn  for  all  the  world  beside,  and  that  he  also  took  a 
special  liking  to  Alcibiades  in  his  youth,  perhaps  as  to  one  fitted 
and  destined  to  do  an  untold  amount  of  mischief. 

^  Latin,  nesdo,  quern,  I  know  not  whom,  or,  of  whom  I  am 
ignorant ;  that  is,  there  may  or  may  not  have  been  such  a  man. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  61 

cannot  help  seeking  some  one  in  whose  presence  he 
may  vomit  the  venom  of  his  bitterness.  The  need 
of  friendship  would  be  best  shown,  were  such  a 
thing  possible,  if  some  god  should  take  us  away 
from  this  human  crowd,  and  place  us  anywhere  in 
solitude,  giving  us  there  an  abundant  supply  of  all 
things  that  nature  craves,  but  depriving  us  utterly 
of  the  sight  of  a  human  countenance.  Who  could 
be  found  of  so  iron  make  that  he  could  endure^ 
such  a  life,  and  whom  solitude  would  not  render 
incapable  of  enjoying  any  kind  of  pleasure  ?  That 
is  true  then  which,  if  I  remember  aright,  our  elders 
used  to  say  that  they  had  heard  from  their  seniors 
in  age  as  having  come  from  Archytas  of  Taren- 
tum, — "If  one  had  ascended  to  heaven,  and  had 
obtained  a  full  view  of  the  nature  of  the  universe 
and  the  beauty  of  the  stars,  yet  his  admiration 
would  be  without  delight,  if  there  were  no  one  to 
whom  he  could  tell  what  he  had  seen.""  Thus  Na- 
ture has  no  love  for  solitude,  and  always  leans,  as  it 
were,  on  some  support ;  and  the  sweetest  support 
is  found  in  the  most  intimate  friendship. 

24.  But  while  Nature  declares  by  so  many  tokens 
what  she  desires,  craves,  needs,  we  —  I  know  not 
how  —  grow  deaf,  and  fail  to  hear  her  counsel. 

Intercourse  among  friends  assumes  many  different 
forms  and  modes,  and  there  frequently  arise  causes 

1  Latin,  tam  .  .  .  ferreiLS,  qui  .  •  .  ferre  posset,  —  an  as- 
sonance which  cannot  be  represented  by,  corresponding  English 
words. 


62  ^       Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

of  suspicion  and  offence,  which  it  is  the  part  of  a 
wise  man  sometimes  to  avoid,  sometimes  to  remove, 
sometimes  to  bear.  One  ground  of  offence,  namely, 
freedom  in  telling  the  truth,  must  be  put  entirely 
away,  in  order  that  friendship  may  retain  its  ser- 
viceableness  and  its  good  faith;  for  friends  often 
need  to  be  admonished  and  reproved,  and  such 
offices,  when  kindly  performed,  ought  to  be  received 
in  a  friendly  way.  Yet  somehow  we  witness  in 
actual  life  what  my  friend  ^  says  in  his  play  of 
Andria :  — 

"  Complacency '^  wins  friends ;  but  truth  gives  birtli  to  hatred." 

Truth  is  offensive,  if  hatred,  the  bane  of  friendship, 
is  indeed  born  of  it ;  but  much  more  offensive  is 
complacency,  when  in  its  indulgence  for  wrong- 
doing it  suffers  a  friend  to  go  headlong  to  ruin. 
The  greatest  blame,  however,  rests  on  him  who 
both  spurns  the  truth  when  it  is  told  him,  and  is 
driven  by  the  complacency  of  friends  to  self-decep- 
tion. In  this  matter,  therefore,  there  should  be  the 
utmost  discretion  and  care,  first,  that  admonition  be 
without  bitterness,  then,  that  reproof  be  without  in- 
vective. But  in  complacency  —  for  I  am  ready  to 
use  the  word  which  Terence  furnishes  —  let  pleas- 
ing truth  be  told ;  let  flattery,  the  handmaid  of  the 

1  Terence,  with  whom  Laelius  was  so  intimate  that  he  was 
reported,  probahly  on  no  sufficient  ground,  to  have  aided  in  the 
composition  of  some  of  the  plays  that  bear  Terence's  name.  This 
verse  is  from  the  Andria. 

2  Obsequium. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  63 

vices,  be  put  far  away,  as  unworthy,  not  only  of 
a  friend,  but  of  any  man  above  the  condition  of 
a  slave;  for  there  is  one  way  of  living  with  a 
tyrant,  another  with  a  friend.  We  may  well  de- 
spair of  saving  him  whose  ears  are  so  closed  to  the 
truth  that  he  cannot  hear  what  is  true  from  a 
friend.  Among  the  many  pithy  sayings  of  Cato 
was  this :  "  There  are  some  who  owe  more  to  their 
bitter  enemies  than  to  the  friends  that  seem  sweet ; 
for  those  often  tell  the  truth,  these  never."  It  is 
indeed  ridiculous  for  those  who  are  admonished 
not  to  be  annoyed  by  what  ought  to  trouble  them, 
and  to  be  annoyed  by  what  ought  to  give  them  no 
oifence.  Their  faults  give  them  no  pain ;  they  take 
it  hard  that  they  are  reproved ;  —  while  they  ought, 
on  the  contrary,  to  be  grieved  for  their  wrong-doing, 
to  rejoice  in  their  correction. 

25.  As,  then,  it  belongs  to  friendship  both  to 
admonish  and  to  be  admonished,  and  to  do  the 
former  freely,  yet  not  harshly,  to  receive  the  latter 
patiently,  not  resentfully,  so  it  is  to  be  maintained 
that  friendship  has  no  greater  pest  than  adulation, 
flattery,  subserviency ;  for  under  its  many  names  ^ 
a  brand  should  be  put  on  this  vice  of  fickle  and 

1  Latin,  muUis  nominibus,  which  some  commentators  render 
"  on  many  accounts,"  nomen  being  used  familiarly  in  the  sense  of 
"  account "  with  reference  to  matters  of  purcliase  and  sale,  debt 
and  credit.  But  I  think  that  Cicero  brings  in  adulatio,  blanditia, 
and  assentatio,  as  so  many  synonyms  of  obsequium,  intending  to 
comprehend  in  his  indictment  whatever  alias  the  one  vice  may 
assume. 


64  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

deceitful  men,  who  say  everything  with  the  view  of 
giving  pleasure,  without  any  reference  to  the  truth. 
While  simulation  is  bad  on  every  account,  inas- 
much as  it  renders  the  discernment  of  the  truth 
which  it  defaces  impossible,  it  is  most  of  all  inimi- 
cal to  friendship ;  for  it  is  fatal  to  sincerity,  with- 
out which  the  name  of  friendship  ceases  to  have 
any  meaning.  For  since  the  essence  of  friendship 
consists  in  this,  that  one  mind  is,  as  it  were,  made 
out  of  several,  how  can  this  be,  if  in  one  of  the 
several  there  shall  be  not  always  one  and  the  same 
mind,  but  a  mind  varying,  changeful,  manifold  ? 
And  what  can  be  so  flexible,  so  far  out  of  its  right- 
ful course,  as  the  mind  of  him  who  adapts  himself, 
not  only  to  the  feelings  and  wishes,  but  even  to  the 
look  and  gesture,  of  another  ? 

"Does  one  say  No  or  Yes  ?    I  say  so  too. 
My  rule  is  to  assent  to  everything," 

as  Terence,  whom  I  have  just  quoted,  says ;  but  he 
says  it  in  the  person  of  Gnatho,^  —  a  sort  of  friend 
which  only  a  frivolous  mind  can  tolerate.  But  as 
there  are  many  like  Gnatho,  who  stand  higher 
than  he  did  in  place,  fortune,  and  reputation,  their 
subserviency  is  the  more  offensive,  because  their 
position  gives  weight  to  their  falsehood. 

But  a  flattering  friend  may  be  distinguished  and 
discriminated  from  a  true  friend  by  proper  care,  as 
easily  as  everything  disguised  and  feigned  is  seen  to 

1  A  parasite,  in  Terence's  play  of  Euniuihus,  from  which  these 
verses  are  quoted. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  65 

differ  from  what  is  genuine  and  real.  The  assembly 
of  the  people,  though  consisting  of  persons  who 
have  the  least  skill  in  judgment,  yet  always  knows 
the  difference  between  him  who,  merely  seekincr 
popularity,  is  sycophantic  and  fickle,  and  a  firm, 
inflexible,  and  substantial  citizen.  With  what  soft 
words  did  Caius  Papirius  ^  steal  ^  into  the  ears  of 
the  assembly  a  little  while  ago,  when  he  brought 
forward  the  law  about  the  re-election  of  the  tribunes 
of  the  people !  ^  I  opposed  the  law.  But,  to  say 
nothing  of  myself,  I  will  rather  speak  of  Scipio. 
How  great,  ye  immortal  gods,  was  his  dignity  of 
bearing  !  What  majesty  of  address !  So  that  you 
might  easily  call  him  the  leader  of  the  Eoman  peo- 
ple, rather  than  one  of  their  number.  But  you  were 
there,  and  you  have  copies  of  his  speech.  Thus  the 
law  was  rejected  by  vote  of  the  people.  But,  to  re- 
turn to  myself,  you  remember,  when  Quintus  Maxi- 
mus,  Scipio's  brother,  and  Lucius  Mancinus  were 
Consuls,  how  much  the  people  seemed  to  favor  the 
law  of  Caius  Licinius  Crassus  about  the  priests. 
The  law  proposed  to  transfer  the  election  of  priests 

1  Caius  Papirius  Carbo,  the  suspected  murderer  of  Scipio. 

2  Latin,  infiuebat,  flowed  in,  a  figure  beautifully  appropriate, 
but  hardly  translatable. 

*  There  was  an  old  law,  which  prohibited  the  re-election  of  a 
citizen  to  the  same  office  till  after  an  interval  of  ten  years.  In  the 
law  here  referred  to,  Carbo  —  then  Tribune  —  sought  to  provide 
for  the  re-election  of  tribunes  as  soon  and  as  often  as  the  people 
might  choose,  thus  undoubtedly  hoping  to  secure  for  himself  a 
permanent  tenure  of  office. 

5 


66  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

from  their  own  respective  colleges  to  the  suffrage  of 
the  people ;  ^  and  he  on  that  occasion  introduced  the 
custom  of  facing  the  people  in  addressing  them.^ 
Yet  under  my  advocacy  the  religion  of  the  immor- 
tal gods  obtained  the  ascendency  over  his  plausible 
speech.  That  was  during  my  praetorship,  five  years 
before  I  was  chosen  Consul.  Thus  the  cause  was 
gained  by  its  own  merits  rather  than  by  official 
authority. 

26.  But  if  on  the  stage,  or  —  what  is  the  same 
thing  —  in  the  assembly  of  the  people,  in  which 
there  is  ample  scope  for  false  and  distorted  represen- 
tations, the  truth  only  needs  to  be  made  plain  and 
clear  in  order  for  it  to  prevail,  what  ought  to  be  the 
case  in  friendship,  which  is  entirely  dependent  for 
its  value  on  truth,  —  in  which  unless,  as  the  phrase 
is,  you  see  an  open  bosom  and  show  your  own,  you 
can  have  nothing  worthy  of  confidence,  nothing  of 
which  you  can  feel  certain,  not  even  the  fact  of  your 
loving  or  being  loved,  since  you  are  ignorant  of 
what  either  really  is  ?  Yet  this  flattery  of  which  I 
have  spoken,  harmful  as  it  is,  can  injure  only  him 
who  takes  it  in  and  is  delighted  Math  it.  Thus  it 
is  the  case  that  he  is  most  ready  to  open  his  ear 
to  flattery,  who  flatters  himself  and  finds  supreme 

1  The  several  pontifical  colleges  had  been  close  corporations, 
filling  their  own  vacancies.  The  law  which  Laelius  defeated 
proposed  transferring  the  election  of  priests  to  the  people. 

2  It  had  been  customary,  when  the  Senate  was  in  session,  for 
him  who  harangued  the  people  to  face  the  temple  where  the  Senate 
sat,  thus  virtually  recognizing  the  supreme  authority  of  that  body. 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  67 

delight  in  himself.  Virtue  indeed  loves  itself ;  for 
it  has  thorough  knowledge  of  itself,  and  understands 
how  worthy  of  love  it  is.  But  it  is  reputed,  not 
real,  virtue  of  which  I  am  now  speaking ;  for  there 
are  not  so  many  possessed  of  virtue  as  there  are  that 
desire  to  seem  virtuous.  These  last  are  delighted 
with  flattery,  and  when  false  statements  are  framed 
purposely  to  satisfy  and  please  them,  they  take  the 
falsehood  as  valid  testimony  to  their  merit.  That, 
however,  is  no  friendship,  in  which  one  of  the  (so- 
called)  friends  does  not  want  to  hear  the  truth,  and 
the  other  is  ready  to  lie.  The  flattery  of  parasites 
on  the  stage  would  not  seem  amiising,  were  there 
not  in  the  play  braggart  soldiers^  to  be  flattered. 

"  Great  thanks  indeed  did  Thais  render  to  me  ?" 

"  Great "  was  a  sufficient  answer ;  but  the  answer  in 
the  play  is  "  Prodigious."  The  flatterer  always  mag- 
nifies what  he  whom  he  is  aiming  to  please  wishes 
to  have  great.  But  while  this  smooth  falsehood 
takes  effect  only  with  those  who  themselves  attract 
and  invite  it,  even  persons  of  a  more  substantial  and 

1  Latin,  militcs  gloriosi.  Miles  Gloi'iosus  is  the  title  of  one  of 
the  comedies  of  Plautus  ;  and  one  of  the  stock  characters  of  the 
ancient  comedy  is  a  conceited,  swaggering,  brainless  soldier,  who 
is  perpetually  boasting  of  his  own  valor  and  exploits,  and  who 
takes  the  most  fulsome  and  ridiculous  flattery  as  the  due  recog- 
nition of  his  transcendent  merit.  The  verse  here  quoted  is  from 
Terence's  Eunuchus.  Thraso,  a  miles  gloriosus  (from  whom  is 
derived  our  adjective  thrasonical),  asks  this  question  of  Gnatho, 
the  parasite,  one  of  whose  speeches  is  quoted  in  §  25.  Magnas 
is  the  word  in  the  question  ;  ingentes,  in  the  answer. 


68  Cicero  de  AmicUia. 

solid  character  need  to  be  warned  to  be  on  tbeir 
guard,  lest  they  be  ensnared  by  flattery  of  a  more 
cunning  type.  No  one  who  has  a  moderate  share 
of  common-sense  fails  to  detect  the  open  flatterer ; 
but  great  care  must  be  taken  lest  the  wily  and  cov- 
ert flatterer  may  insinuate  himself;  for  he  is  not 
very  easily  recognized,  since  he  often  assents  by 
opposing,  plays  the  game  of  disputing  in  a  smooth, 
caressing  way,  and  at  length  submits,  and  suffers 
himself  to  be  outreasoned,  so  as  to  make  him  on 
whom  he  \s  practising  his  arts  appear  to  have  had 
the  deeper  insight.  But  what  is  more  disgraceful 
than  to  be  made  game  of  ?  One  must  take  heed 
not  to  put  himself  in  the  condition  of  the  character 
in  the  play  of  The  Heiress :  ^  — 

*'  Of  an  old  fool  one  never  made  such  sport 
As  you  have  made  of  me  this  very  day  ;  " 

for  there  is  no  character  on  the  stage  so  foolish  as 
that  of  these  unwary  and  credulous  old  men.  But 
I  know  not  how  my  discourse  has  digi-essed  from 
the  friendships  of  perfect,  that  is,  of  wise  men,  — 
wise,  I  mean,  so  far  as  wisdom  can  fall  to  the  lot 
of  man,  —  to  friendships  of  a  lighter  sort.  Let  us 
then  return  to  our  original  subject,  and  bring  it  to 
a  speedy  conclusion. 

1  Epicleros,  a  comedy  by  Caecilius  Statins,  of  whose  works 
ouly  a  few  fragments,  like  this,  are  extant.  Next  to  the  braggart 
soldier,  a  credulous  old  man  —  generally  a  father  —  who  could 
have  all  manner  of  tricks  played  upon  him  without  detecting  their 
import,  was  the  favorite  butt  for  ridicule  in  the  ancient  comedy. 


Cicero  de  Araicitia.  69 

27.  Virtue,  I  say  to  you,  Caius  Fannius,  and  to 
you,  Quintus  Mucius,  —  virtue  both  forms  and  pre- 
serves friendships.  In  it  is  mutual  agreement ;  in 
it  is  stability ;  in  it  is  consistency  of  conduct  and 
character.  When  it  has  put  itself  forth  and  shown 
its  light,  and  has  seen  and  recognized  the  same 
light  in  another,  it  draws  near  to  that  light,  and 
receives  in  return  what  the  other  has  to  give;  and 
from  this  intercourse  love,  or  friendship, —  call  it 
Avhich  you  may,  —  is  kindled.  These  terms  are 
equally  derived  in  our  language  from  loving ;  ^  and 
to  love  is  nothing  else  than  to  cherish  affection  for 
him  whom  you  love,  with  no  felt  need  of  his  ser- 
vice, with  no  quest  of  benefit  to  be  obtained  from 
him  ;  while,  nevertheless,  serviceableness  blooms  out 
from  friendship,  however  little  you  may  have  had 
it  in  view.'  With  this  affection  I  in  my  youtii 
loved  those  old  men, — Lucius  Paulus,  Marcus  Cato, 
Caius  Gallus,  Publius  Nasica,  Tiberius  Gracchus, 
the  father-in-law  of  my  friend  Scipio.  This  rela- 
tion is  more  conspicuous  among  those  of  the  same 
age,  as  between  myself  and  Scipio,  Lucius  Furius, 
Publius  Rupilius,  Spurius  Mummius.  But  in  my 
turn,  as  an  old  man,  I  find  repose  in  the  attachment 
of  young  men,  as  in  yours,  and  in  that  of  Quintus 
Tubero,  and  I  am  delighted  with  the  intimacy  of 
Publius  Piutilius  and  Aulus  Virginius,  who  are  just 
emerging  from  boyhood.  While  the  order  of  human 
life  and  of  nature  is  such  that  another  generation 

1  Amor  .  .  ,  amicitia  .  .  .  ab  ainando. 


70  Cicero  de  Amicitia. 

must  come  upon  the  stage,  it  would  be  most  desira- 
ble, could  such  a  thing  be,  to  reach  the  goal,  so  to 
speak,  with  those  of  our  own  age  with  whom  we 
started  on  the  race ;  but  since  man's  life  is  frail  and 
precarious,  we  ought  always  to  be  in  quest  of  some 
younger  persons  whom  we  may  love,  and  who  will 
love  us  in  return ;  for  when  love  and  kindness  cease 
all  enjoyment  is  taken  out  of  life. 

For  me  indeed,  Scipio,  though  suddenly  snatched 
away,  still  lives  and  will  always  live ;  for  I  loved  the 
virtue  of  the  man,  which  is  not  extinguished.  Nor 
does  it  float  before  my  eyes  only,  as  I  have  always 
had  it  at  hand  ;  it  will  also  be  renowned  and  illus- 
trious with  generations  to  come.  No  one  will  ever 
enter  with  courage  and  hope  on  a  high  and  noble 
career,  without  proposing  to  himself  as  a  standard 
the  memory  and  image  of  his  virtue.  Indeed,  of 
all  things  which  fortune  or  nature  ever  gave  me,  I 
have  nothing  that  I  can  compare  with  the  friend- 
ship of  Scipio.  In  this  there  was  a  common  feeling 
as  to  the  affairs  of  the  State ;  in  this,  mutual  coun- 
sel as  to  our  private  concerns ;  in  this,  too,  a  repose 
full  of  delight.  Never,  so  far  as  I  know,  did  I 
offend  him  in  the  least  thing;  never  did  I  hear 
from  him  a  word  which  I  would  not  wish  to  hear. 
We  had  one  home;^  the  same  diet,  and  that  sim- 

1  This  may  refer  to  their  living  together  on  their  cam- 
paigns, journeys,  and  rural  sojourns  ;  but  more  probably  to  the 
fact  that  each  felt  as  much  at  home  in  the  other's  house  as  in  his 


Cicero  de  Amicitia.  71 

pie ;  *  we  were  together,  not  only  in  military  service, 
but  also  in  journeying  and  in  our  rural  sojourns. 
And  what  shall  I  say  of  our  unflagging  zeal  in  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge,  and  in  learning  everything 
new  within  our  reach,  —  an  employment  in  which, 
when  not  under  the  eyes  of  the  public,  we  passed  all 
our  leisure  time  together  ?  Had  the  recollection  and 
remembrance  of  these  things  died  with  him,  I  could 
not  anyhow  bear  the  loss  of  a  man,  thus  bound  to 
me  in  the  closest  intimacy  and  holding  me  in  the 
dearest  love.  But  they  are  not  blotted  out,  they  are 
rather  nourished  and  increased  by  reflection  and 
memory;  and  were  I  entirely  bereft  of  them,  my 
advanced  age  would  still  be  my  great  comfort ,  for 
I  can  miss  his  society  but  for  a  brief  season,  and  all 
sorrows,  however  heavy,  if  they  can  last  but  a  little 
while,  ought  to  be  endured. 

I  had  these  things  to  say  to  you  about  friendship ; 
and  I  exhort  you  that  you  so  give  the  foremost 
place  to  virtue  without  which  friendship  cannot 
be,  that  with  the  sole  exception  of  virtue,  you  may 
think  nothing  to  be  preferred  to  friendship. 

1  Latin,  communis.  I  do  not  find  that  this  word  has  in  Latin 
the  sense  of  cheap  and  incan  which  our  word  common  has.  But 
here  it  cannot  mean  that  Laelius  and  Scipio  fed  together,  which 
is  sufficiently  said  in  the  preceding  idem  victus.  It  must  there- 
fore denote  such  fare  as  was  common  to  them  with  their  fellow- 
citizens  in  general,  and  that  is  simple  and  not  luxurious  fare. 


SCIPIO'S    DEEAM. 


1.  When  I  arrived  in  Africa,  to  serve,  as  you 
know,  in  the  office  of  military  Tribune  of  the  fourth 
Legion,  under  Manius^  Manilius  as  consul,  I  de- 
sired nothing  so  much  as  to  meet  Masinissa^  the 
king,  who  for  sufficient  reasons  ^  stood  in  the  most 
friendly  relation  to  our  family.  When  I  came  to 
him,  the  old  man  embraced  me  with  tears,  and 
shortly  afterward  looked  up  to  heaven  and  said :  "  I 
thank  thee,  sovereign  Sun,*  and  all  of  you  lesser 

^  The  praenomen  Marcus  is  given  to  Manilius  in  the  manu- 
script of  the  De  Republica  discovered  by  Angelo  Mai ;  but  Manius 
is  the  reading  in  all  previous  authorities  as  to  this  special  frag- 
ment. 

2  King  of  Numidia,  —  a  country  nearly  identical  in  extent 
wnth  the  present  province  of  Algeria.  Its  name  defines  its  peo- 
ple, being  derived  from  vofidSes,  nomads.  Its  inhabitants  were  a 
wild,  semi-savage  cluster  of  tribes,  black  and  white.  Masinissa, 
though  faithful  to  the  Romans  after  he  had  convinced  himself 
that  theirs  must  be  the  ascendant  star,  was  a  crafty,  treacherous, 
cruel  prince,  probably  with  enough  of  civilization  to  have  acquired 
some  of  its  vices,  while  he  had  not  lost  those  of  the  savage. 

3  The  elder  Africanus  had  confirmed  him  in  the  possession  of 
his  own  Numidia,  and  had  added  to  it  the  adjoining  kingdom  of 
Cirt;a. 

*  The  Nmnidians  worshipped  the  heavenly  bodies. 


74  Scipids  Dream. 

lights  of  heaven,  that  before  I  pass  away  from  this 
life  I  behold  in  my  kingdom  and  beneath  this  roof 
Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  whose  very  name  renews 
my  strength,  so  utterly  inseparable  from  my  thought 
is  the  memory  of  that  best  and  most  invincible  of 
men  who  first  bore  it."  Then  I  questioned  him 
about  his  kingdom,  and  he  asked  me  about  our 
republic ;  and  with  the  many  things  that  we  had  to 
communicate  to  each  other,  the  day  wore  away. 

At  a  later  hour,  after  an  entertainment  of  royal 
magnificence,  we  prolonged  our  conversation  far 
into  the  night,  while  the  old  man  talked  to  me 
about  nothing  else  but  Africanus,  rehearsing  not 
only  all  that  he  had  done,  but  all  that  he  had  said. 
When  we  parted  to  go  to  our  rest,  sleep  took  a 
stronger  hold  on  me  than  usual,  on  account  both  of 
the  fatigue  of  my  journey  and  of  the  lateness  of 
the  hour.  In  my  sleep,  I  suppose  in  consequence 
of  our  conversation  (for  generally  our  thoughts  and 
utterances  by  day  have  in  our  sleep  an  effect  like 
that  which  Ennius  describes  in  his  own  case  as  to 
Homer,^  about  whom  in  his  waking  hours  he  was 
perpetually  thinking  and  talking),  Africanus  ap- 
peared to  me,  with  an  aspect  that  reminded  me 
more  of  his  bust  than  of  his  real  face.  I  shuddered 
when  I  saw  him.  But  he  said  :  "  Preserve  your 
presence  of  mind,  Scipio ;  be  not  afraid,  and  com- 
mit to  memory  what  I  shall  say  to  you. 

^  The  first  verse  of  the  Annales  of  Ennius  was  :  — 
"  In  somaU  mihi  visas  Homems  adesse  poeta." 


Scipids  Dream.  75 

2.  "Do  you  see  that  city,  which  was  brought 
through  me  into  subjection  to  the  Eoman  people, 
but  now  renews  its  old  hostility,  and  cannot  remain 
quiet," — and  he  showed  me  Carthage  from  a  high 
place  full  of  stars,  shining  and  splendid,  —  "  against 
which  you,  being  little  more  than  a  common  soldier, 
are  coming  to  fight?  In  two  years  from  now  you 
as  Consul  will  overthrow  this  city,  and  you  will 
obtain  of  your  own  right  the  surname  which  up 
to  this  time  you  hold  as  inherited  from  me.  When 
you  shall  have  destroyed  Carthage,  shall  have 
celebrated  your  triumph  over  it,  shall  have  been 
Censor,  and  shall  have  traversed,  as  an  ambassa- 
dor, Egypt,  Syria,  Asia,  and  Greece,  you  will  be 
chosen  a  second  time  Consul  in  your  absence,  and 
will  put  an  end  to  one  of  the  greatest  of  wars  by 
extirpating  Numantia.  But  when  you  shall  be 
borne  to  the  Capitol  in  your  triumphal  chariot  after 
this  war,  you  will  find  the  State  disturbed  by  the 
machinations  of  my  grandson.^ 

"  In  this  emergency,  Africanus,  it  will  behoove 
you  to  show  your  country  the  light  of  your  energy, 
genius,  and  wisdom.  But  I  see  at  that  time,  as  it 
were,  a  double  way  of  destiny.  For  when  your  age 
shall  have  followed  the  sun  for  eight  times  seven 
revolutions,  and  these  two  numbers  ^  —  each  perfect, 

1  Tiberius  Gracchus,  wliose  mother,  Cornelia,  was  the  daughter 
of  the  elder  Afiicanus. 

2  The  Pythagoreans  regarded  seven  as  the  number  representing 
light,  and  eight  as  representing  love.     Seven  was  also  a  perfect 


76  Scipids  Dream. 

though  for  different  reasons  —  shall  have  completed 
for  you  in  the  course  of  nature  the  destined  period, 
to  you  alone  and  to  your  name  the  whole  city  will 
turn ;  on  you  the  Senate  will  look,  on  you  all  good 
citizens,  on  you  the  allies,  on  you  the  Latini.  You 
will  be  the  one  man  on  whom  the  safety  of  the  city 
will  rest ;  and,  to  say  no  more,  you,  as  Dictator, 
must  re-establish  the  State,  if  you  escape  the  im- 
pious hands  of  your  kindred."  ^  Here,  when  Laelius 
had  cried  out;  and  the  rest  of  the  company  had 
breathed  deep  sighs,  Scipio,  smiling  pleasantly  upon 
them,  said,  "  I  beg  you  not  to  rouse  me  from  sleep 
and  break  up  my  vision.  Hear  the  remainder 
of  it." 

3.  "But  that  you,  Africanus,  may  be  the  more 
prompt  in  the  defence  of  the  State,  know  that  for 
all  who  shall  have  preserved,  succored,  enlarged 
their  country,  there  is  a  certain  and  determined 
place  in  heaven  where  they  enjoy  eternal  happiness ; 
for  to  the  Supreme  God  who  governs  this  whole 
universe  nothing  is  more  pleasing  than  those  com- 
panies and  unions  of  men  that  are  called  cities.     Of 

number,  as  corresponding  to  the  number  of  celestial  orbits  (in- 
cluding the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  five  known  planets),  the 
number  of  days  in  the  quarter  of  the  moon's  revolution,  and  the 
number  of  the  gates  of  sense  (so  to  speak),  mouth,  eyes,  ears,  and 
nostrils.  Eight  was  a  perfect  number,  as  being  first  after  unity 
on  the  list  of  cubes  ;  and  Plato  in  the  Timaciis  speaks  of  eight 
celestial  revolutions — including  that  of  the  earth  —  as  unequal  in 
duration  and  velocity,  but  as  forming,  in  some  unexplained  way, 
a  cycle  synchronous  with  the  year. 
^  See  De  Amicitia  §  3,  note. 


Scipio's  Dream.  77 

these  the  rulers  and  preservers,  going  hence,  return 
hither." 

Here  I,  although  I  had  been  alarmed,  not  indeed 
so  much  by  the  fear  of  death  as  by  that  of  the 
treachery  of  my  own  kindred,  yet  asked  whether 
Paulus,  my  father,  and  others  whom  we  supposed 
to  be  dead  were  living.  "  Yes,  indeed,"  he  replied, 
"  those  who  have  fled  from  the  bonds  of  the  body, 
like  runners  from  the  goal,  live  ;  while  what  is 
called  your  life  is  death.  But  do  you  see  your 
father  Paulus  coming  to  you  ? "  When  I  saw  him, 
I  shed  a  flood  of  tears;  but  he,  embracing  and 
kissing  me,  forbade  my  weeping. 

Then  as  soon  as  my  tears  would  suffer  me  to 
speak,  I  began  by  saying,  "Most  sacred  and  excel- 
lent father,  since  this  is  life,  as  Africanus  tells  me, 
wliy  do  I  remain  on  the  earth,  and  not  rather  hasten 
to  come  to  you  ? "  "  Not  so,"  said  he  ;  "  for  unless 
the  God  who  has  for  his  temple  all  that  you  now 
behold,  shall  have  freed  you  from  this  prison  of 
the  body,  there  can  be  no  entrance  for  you  hither. 
Men  have  indeed  been  brought  into  being  on  this 
condition,  that  they  should  guard  the  globe  which 
you  see  in  the  midst  of  this  temple,  which  is  called 
the  earth  ;  and  a  soul  has  been  given  to  them  from 
those  eternal  fires  which  you  call  constellations 
and  stars,  which,  globed  and  round,  animated  with 
god-derived  minds,  complete  their  courses  and  move 
through  their  orbits  with  amazing  speed.  You, 
therefore,  Publius,  and  all  rightly  disposed  men  are 


78  Scipio's  Dream. 

bound  to  retain  the  soul  in  tlie  body's  keeping,  nor 
without  the  command  of  him  who  gave  it  to  you 
to  depart  from  the  life  appointed  for  man,  lest  you 
may  seem  to  have  taken  flight  from  human  duty  as 
assigned  by  God.  But,  Scipio,  like  this  your  grand- 
father,^  like  me,  your  father,  cherish  justice  and 
that  sacred  observance  of  duty  to  your  kind,  which, 
while  of  great  worth  toward  parents  and  family,  is 
of  supreme  value  toward  your  country.  Such  a  life 
is  the  way  to  heaven,  and  to  this  assembly  of  those 
who  have  already  lived,  and,  released  from  the  body, 
inhabit  the  place  which  you  now  see,"  —  it  was  that 
circle  that  shines  forth  among  the  stars  in  the  most 
dazzling  white, — "  which  you  have  learned  from 
the  Greeks  to  call  the  Milky  Way."  And  as  I 
looked  on  every  side  I  saw  other  things  transcen- 
dently  glorious  and  wonderful.  There  were  stars 
which  we  never  see  from  here  below,  and  all  the 
stars  were  vast  far  beyond  what  we  have  ever  im- 
agined. The  least  of  them  was  that  which,  farthest 
from  heaven,  nearest  to  the  earth,  shone  with  a 
borrowed  light.  But  the  starry  globes  very  far  sur- 
passed the  earth  in  magnitude.  The  earth  itself  in- 
deed looked  to  me  so  small  as  to  make  me  ashamed  of 
our  empire,  which  was  a  mere  point  on  its  surface. 

4.  While  I  was  gazing  more  intently  on  the 
earth,  Africanus  said  :  "  How  long,  I  pray  you,  will 
your  mind  be  fastened  on  the  ground  ?     Do  you  not 

*  By  adoption.  The  younger  Africanus  was  adopted  by  a  son 
of  the  elder. 


Scipio's  Dream.  79 

see  into  the  midst  of  what  temples  you  have  come  ? 
In  your  sight  are  nine  orbs,  or  rather  globes,  by 
which  all  things  are  held  together.  One  is  the 
celestial,  the  outermost,  embracing  all  the  rest,  — 
the  Supreme  God  himself,^  who  governs  and  keeps 
in  their  places  the  other  spheres.  In  this  are 
fixed  those  stars  which  ever  roll  in  an  unchanging 
course.  Beneath  this  are  seven  spheres  which  have 
a  retrograde  movement,  opposite  to  that  of  the 
heavens.  One  of  these  is  the  domain  of  the  star 
which  on  earth  they  call  Saturn.  Next  is  the  lumi- 
nary which  bears  the  name  of  Jupiter,  of  prosper- 
ous and  healthful  omen  to  the  human  race ;  then, 
the  star  of  fiery  red  which  you  call  Mars,  and  which 
men  regard  with  terror.  Beneath,  the  Sun  holds 
nearly  the  midway  space,'^  leader,  prince,  and  ruler 
of  the  other  lights,  the  mind  and  regulating  power 
of  the  universe,  so  vast  as  to  illuminate  and  flood 
all  things  with  his  light.  Him,  as  his  companions, 
Venus  and  Mercury  follow  on  their  different  courses ; 
and  in  a  sphere  still  lower  the  moon  revolves, 
lighted  by  the  rays  of  the  sun.  Beneath  this  there 
is  nothing  that  is  not  mortal  and  perishable,  ex- 
cept the  souls  bestowed  upon  the  human  race  by 
the  gift  of  the  gods.    Above  the  moon  all  things  are 

1  Here  crops  out  the  Pantheism  —  the  non-detachment  or 
semi-detachment  of  God  from  nature  —  which  casts  a  penumhra 
around  monotheism  and  the  approaches  to  it,  ahnost  always, 
except  under  Hebrew  and  Christian  auspices. 

2  The  middle,  as  the  fifth  of  the  nine  spheres,  enclosed  by  four, 
and  enclosing  four. 


80  Sci'pio's  Dream. 

eternal.  The  earth,  which  is  the  central  and  ninth 
sphere,  has  no  motion,  and  is  the  lowest  ^  of  all,  and 
all  heavy  bodies  gravitate  spontaneously  toward  it." 
5.  When  I  had  recovered  from  my  amazement 
at  these  things  I  asked,  "What  is  this  sound  so 
strong  and  so  sweet  that  fills  my  ears  ? "  "  This,"  he 
replied,  "  is  the  melody  which,  at  intervals  unequal, 
yet  differing  in  exact  proportions,  is  made  by  the 
impulse  and  motion  of  the  spheres  themselves* 
which,  softening  shriller  by  deeper  tones,  produce 
a  diversity  of  regular  harmonies.  Nor  can  such 
vast  movements  be  urged  on  in  silence  ;  and  by  the 
order  of  nature  the  shriller  notes  sound  from  one 
extreme  of  the  universe,  the  deeper  from  the  other. 
Thus  yonder  supreme  celestial  sphere  with  its  clus- 
tered stars,  as  it  revolves  more  rapidly,  moves  with 
a  shrill  and  quick  strain  ;  this  lower  sphere  of  the 
moon  sends  forth  deeper  notes ;  while  the  earth,  the 
ninth  sphere,  remaining  motionless,^  always  stands 
fixed  in  the  lowest  place,  occupying  the  centre  of 
the  universe.  But  these  eight  revolutions,  of  which 
two,  those  of  Mercury  and  Venus,  are  in  unison, 
make  seven  distinct  tones,  with  measured  intervals 
between,  and  almost  all  things  are  arranged  in 
sevens.^     Skilled  men,  copying  this  harmony  with 

1  The  lowest  because  central,  and  therefore  farthest  from  the 
outermost  or  celestial  sphere. 

2  Therefore  without  sound. 

8  Latin,  qui  numerics  (that  is,  septem)  rerum  omnium  fere  nodus 
est.  Literally,  "  which  number  is  the  knot  of  almost  everything." 
The  more  intelligible  form  in  which  I  have  rendered  these  words 


Scipids  Dream.  81 

strings  and  voice,  have  opened  for  themselves  a  way 
back  to  this  place,  as  have  others  who  with  excelling 
genius  have  cultivated  divine  sciences  in  human 
life.  But  the  ears  of  men  are  deafened  by  being 
filled  with  this  melody ;  nor  is  there  in  you  mortals 
a  duller  sense  than  that  of  hearing.  As  where 
the  Nile  at  the  Falls  of  Catadupa  pours  down  from 
the  loftiest  mountains,  the  people  who  live  hard 
by  lack  the  sense  of  hearing  because  of  the  loud- 
ness of  the  cataract,  so  this  harmony  of  the  whole 
universe  in  its  intensely  rapid  movement  is  so  loud 
that  men's  ears  cannot  take  it  in,  even  as  you  can- 
not look  directly  at  the  sun,  and  the  keenness  and 
visual  power  of  the  eye  are  overwhelmed  by  its 
rays."  While  I  marvelled  at  these  things,  I  ever 
and  anon  cast  my  eyes  again  upon  the  earth. 

6.  Then  African  us  said  :  "  I  perceive  that  you  are 
now  fixing  your  eyes  on  the  abode  and  home  of  men, 
and  if  it  seems  to  you  small,  as  it  really  is,  then 
look  always  at  these  heavenly  things,  and  despise 
those  earthly.  For  what  reputation  from  the  speech 
of  men,  or  what  fame  worth  seeking,  can  you  obtain  ? 
You  see  that  the  inhabited  places  of  the  earth  are 
scattered  and  of  small  extent,  that  in  the  spots  ^  — 
so  to  speak  —  where  men  dwell  there  are  vast  soli- 
seems  to  me  to  convey  their  true  meaning,  and  my  belief  to  that 
effect  is  confirmed  by  reading  what  several  commentators  say 
about  the  passage. 

1  Latin,  maculis,  —  a  figure  so  bold  in  Cicero's  time  as  to  need 
an  apology  for  its  itse,  but  now  employed  with  no  consciousness  of 
its  being  otherwise  than  strictly  literaL 

6 


82  Scipids  Dream. 

tary  tracts  interposed,  and  that  those  who  live  on 
the  earth  are  not  only  so  separated  that  no  com- 
munication can  pass  from  place  to  place,  but  stand, 
in  part  at  an  oblique  angle,  in  part  at  a  right  angle 
with  you,  in  part  even  in  an  opposite  direction ;  ^ 
and  from  these  you  certainly  can  anticipate  no 
fame. 

"  You  perceive  also  that  this  same  earth  is  girded 
and  surrounded  by  belts,  two  of  which  —  the  far- 
thest from  each  other,  and  each  resting  at  one  ex- 
tremity on  the  very  pole  of  tRe  heavens  —  you  see 
entirely  frost-bound ;  while  the  middle  and  largest 
of  them  burns  under  the  sun's  intensest  heat. 
Two  of  them  are  habitable,  of  which  the  southern, 
whose  inhabitants  are  your  antipodes,  bears  no  re- 
lation to  your  people ;  and  see  how  small  a  part 
they  occupy  in  this  other  northern  zone,  in  which 
you  dwell.  For  all  of  the  earth  with  which  you 
have  any  concern  —  narrow  at  the  north  and  south, 
broader  in  its  central  portion  —  is  a  mere  little 
island,  surrounded  by  that  sea  which  you  on  earth 
call  the  Atlantic,  the  Great  Sea,  the  Ocean,  while 
yet,  with  such  a  name,  you  see  how  small  it  is. 
To  speak  only  of  these  cultivated  and  well-known 
regions,  could  your  name  even  cross  this  Caucasus 
which  you  have  in  view,  or  swim   beyond  that 

^  It  hardly  needs  to  be  said,  that  the  reference  here  is  to  the 
convex  surface  of  the  earth,  on  which  those  remote  from  one 
another  may  hold  all  the  various  angles  to  each  other  that  are 
borne  by  the  spokes  of  a  wheel. 


Scijno's  Dream.  83 

Ganges  ?  Who,  in  what  other  lands  may  lie  in  the 
extreme  east  or  west,  or  under  northern  or  southern 
skies,  will  ever  hear  your  name  ?  All  these  cut  off, 
you  surely  see  within  what  narrow  bounds  your 
fame  can  seek  to  spread.  Then,  too,  as  regards  the 
very  persons  who  tell  of  your  renown,  how  long 
•will  they  speak  of  it  ? 

7.  "  But  even  if  successive  generations  should 
desire  to  transmit  the  praise  of  every  one  of  us 
from  father  to  son  in  unbroken  succession,  yet 
because  of  devastations  by  flood  and  fire,  which 
will  of  necessity  take  place  at  a  determined  time, 
we  must  fail  of  attaining  not  only  eternal  fame,  but 
even  that  of  very  long  duration.  Now  of  what 
concern  is  it  tliat  those  who  shall  be  born  hereafter 
should  speak  of  you,  when  you  were  spoken  of  by 
none  w^ho  were  born  before  you,  who  were  not 
fewer,  and  certainly  were  better  men  ?  —  especially, 
too,  when  among  those  who  might  hear  our  names 
there  is  not  one  that  can  retain  the  memories  of  a 
single  year.  Men,  indeed,  ordinarily  measure  the 
year  only  by  the  return  of  the  sun,  that  is,  one  star, 
to  its  place ;  but  when  all  the  stars,  after  long 
intervals,  shall  resume  their  original  places  in  the 
heavens,  then  that  completed  revolution  may  be 
truly  called  a  year.  As  of  old  the  sun  seemed  to  be 
eclipsed  and  blotted  out  when  the  soul  of  Eomulus 
entered  these  temples,  so  when  the  sun  shall  be 
again  eclipsed  in  the  same  part  of  his  course,  and 
at  the  same  period  of  the  year  and  day,  with  all  the 


84  Scipid's  Dream. 

constellations  and  stars  recalled  to  the  point  from 
which  they  started  on  their  revolutions,  then  count 
the  year  as  brought  to  a  close.^  But  be  assured  that 
the  twentieth  part  of  this  year  has  not  yet  come 
round. 

"  Therefore,  should  you  renounce  the  hope  of  re- 
turning to  this  place  in  which  are  all  things  that 
great  and  excellent  men  can  desire,  of  what  worth 
is  that  human  glory  which  can  scarcely  extend  to 
a  small  part  of  a  single  year  ?  If,  then,  you  shall 
determine  to  look  high  up,  and  to  behold  continu- 
ously this  dwelling  and  eternal  home,  you  will 
neither  give  yourself  to  the  flattery  of  the  people, 
nor  place  your  hope  of  well-being  on  rewards  that 
man  can  bestow.  Let  Virtue  herself  by  her  own 
charms  draw  you  to  true  honor.  What  others  may 
say  of  you,  regard  as  their  concern,  not  yours. 
They  will  doubtless  talk  about  you,  but  all  that 
they  say  is  confined  within  the  narrow  limits  of 
the  regions  which  you  now  see  ;  nor  did  such  speech 
as  to  any  one  ever  last  on  into  eternity,  —  it  is 
buried  with  those  who  die,  and  lost  in  oblivion  for 
those  who  may  come  afterward." 

8.  When  he  had  spoken  thus,  I  said,  "0  Afri- 
canus,  if  indeed  for  those  who  have  deserved  well 

1  The  Stoics  maintained  that  the  visible  universe  would  last 
through  such  a  cycle  as  is  here  described,  which  in  their  conjec- 
tural astronomy  comprehended  many  thousands  of  years,  and  then 
would  be  consumed  by  fire,  or  somehow  be  reduced  to  chaos,  and 
a  new  universe  take  its  place. 


Scipio's  Bream,  85 

of  their  country  there  is,  as  it  were,  an  open  road 
by  which  they  may  enter  heaven,  though  from  boy- 
hood treading  in  my  father's  steps  and  yours,  I  have 
done  no  discredit  to  your  fame,  I  yet  shall  now 
strive  to  that  end  with  a  more  watchful  diligence." 
And  he  replied :  "  Strive  ^  indeed,  and  bear  this  in 
mind,  that  it  is  not  you  that  are  mortal,  but  your 
body  only.  Nor  is  it  you  whom  this  outward  form 
makes  manifest ;  but  every  man's  mind  is  he,  —  not 
the  bodily  shape  which  can  be  pointed  at  by  the 
finger.  Know  also  that  you  are  a  god,  if  he  indeed 
is  a  god  who  lives,  who  perceives,  who  remembers, 
who  foresees,  who  governs  and  restrains  and  moves 
the  body  over  which  he  is  made  ruler  even  as  the 
Supreme  God  holds  the  universe  under  his  sway ; 
and  in  truth  as  the  eternal  God  himself  moves  the 
universe  which  is  mortal  in  every  part,  so  does  the 
everlasting  soul  move  the  corruptible  body. 

"  That,  indeed,  which  is  in  perpetual  movement  is 
eternal;  but  that  which,  while  imparting  motion 
to  some  other  substance,  derives  its  own  movement 
from  some  other  source,  must  of  necessity  cease  to 
live  when  it  ceases  to  move.  Then  that  alone 
which  is  the  cause  of  its  own  motion,  because  it 
is  never  deserted  by  itself,  never  has  its  move- 
ment suspended.  But  for  other  substances  that  are 
moved  this  is  the  source,  the  first  cause,^  of  move- 
ment.    But  the  first  cause  has  no  origin;  for  all 

1  Or,  you  will  strive  indeed. 

2  L&tin,  principium. 


86  Scipio's  Dream. 

things  spring  from  the  first  cause :  itself,  from  noth- 
ing. That  indeed  would  not  be  a  first  cause  which 
derived  its  beginning  from  anything  else ;  and  if  it 
has  no  beginning,  it  never  ceases  to  be.  For  the 
first  cause,  if  extinct,  will  neither  itself  be  born 
again  from  aught  else,  nor  will  it  create  aught  else 
from  itself,  if  indeed  all  things  must  of  necessity 
originate  from  the  first  cause.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
first  cause  of  motion  is  derived  from  that  which  is  in 
its  nature  self-moving;  but  this  can  neither  be  born 
nor  die.  Were  it  to  die,  the  whole  heaven  would 
of  necessity  collapse,  and  all  nature  would  stand 
still,  nor  could  it  find  any  force  which  could  be  set 
in  movement  anew  from  a  primitive  impulse.^ 

9.  "  Since,  then,  that  which  is  the  source  of  its 
own  movement  is  manifestly  eternal,  who  is  there 
that  can  deny  that  this  nature  has  been  given  to  the 
soul  ?  For  whatever  is  moved  by  external  impulse 
is  soulless ;  ^  but  whatever  has  a  soul  ^  is  stirred  to 
action  by  movement  inward  and  its  own ;  for  this  is 
the  peculiar  nature  and  virtue  of  the  soul.  More- 
over, if  it  is  this  alone  of  all  things  that  is  the  source 
of  its  own  movement,  it  certainly  did  not  begin  to 
be,  and  is  eternal. 

1  From  a  first  cause  ;  the  first  cause,  by  hypothesis,  having 
ceased  to  be. 

2  Latin,  inanimum. 

*  Latin,  animal.  My  renderings  of  inanimum  and  animal 
here,  if  not  justified  by  any  parallel  instances  (and  I  know  not 
whether  they  are),  are  required  by  the  obvious  meaning  of  the 
sentence. 


Scvpio's  Dream.  87 

"  This  soul  I  bid  you  to  exercise  in  the  best  pur- 
suits, and  the  best  are  your  cares  for  your  country's 
safety,  by  which  if  your  soul  be  kept  in  constant 
action  and  exercise,  it  will  have  the  more  rapid 
flight  to  this  its  abode  and  home.  This  end  it  will 
attain  the  more  readily,  if,  while  it  shall  be  shut  up 
in  the  body,  it  shall  peer  forth,  and,  contemplating 
those  things  that  are  beyond,  abstract  itself  as  far 
as  possible  from  the  body.  For  the  souls  of  those 
who  have  surrendered  themselves  to  the  pleasures 
of  the  body,  have  yielded  themselves  to  their  ser- 
vice, and,  obeying  them  under  the  impulse  of  sensual 
lusts,  have  transgressed  the  laws  of  gods  and  men, 
when  they  pass  out  of  their  bodies  are  tossed  to 
and  fro  around  the  earth,  nor  return  to  this  place 
till  they  have  wandered  in  banishment  for  many 
ages." 

He  departed  ;   I  awoke  from  sleep. 


INDEX. 


Augustine,  Saint,  a  work  of,  written  on  a  palimpsest  over  a  copy 
of  the  Dc  Repitblica,  xvi. 

Canieades,  sophistry  of,  29  n. 
Christianity,  relation  of,  to  friendship,  viii. 
Cicero,  dramatic  power  of,  t. 

liable  to  be  misjudged  as  to  the  moral  bearing  of  a  pas- 
sage in  the  De  Amicitia,  45  n. 

De  Amicitia,  the,  when  written,  v. 
Be  Eepublica,  discovery  of  the,  xvii. 
form  of  the,  xviiL 

Empedocles,  poem  of,  anticipating  the  theory  of  universal  gravi- 
tation, 20  n. 
Euripides,  paraphrase  of  a  passage  in  the  Hippolytus  of,  36  n. 

Fannius,  Cains,  life  of,  xiii. 

Friendship,  place  of,  in  ancient  systems  of  ethics,  vii. 

how  replaced  under  Christian  auspices,  viii. 

defined,  16. 

power  of,  19. 

source  of,  23. 

how  far  dependent  on  mutual  benefits,  25. 

how  formed  between  individuals,  26. 

how  broken,  28. 

limits  of,  29. 

duties  of,  32. 


90  Index. 

Friendship,  authorizes  no  demand  or  concession  that  is  morally 

wrong,  35. 
worth  of,  39. 

unreasonably  neglected  by  the  many,  41. 
theories  as  to  the  bounds  of,  42. 
concessions  to  be  made  on  account  of,  in  matters  of 

right,  45. 
what  sort  of  men  are  faithful  in,  47. 
qualities  essential  to  happiness  in,  49. 
old  to  be  preferred  to  new,  50. 
affronts  and  grievances  in,  53. 
unreasonable  exactions  of,  54. 
dissolution  of,  when  necessary,  55. 
mutual  respect  essential  to,  57. 
prevalent  indifference  to,  60. 
duty  of  truth-telling  in,  62. 
flattery  fatal  to,  64. 
of  Laelius  and  Scipio  described,  70. 

Hannibal,  character  of,  24  n. 
Hospes,  double  meaning  of,  20  n. 

Immortality,  reasons  for  believing  in,  11. 

Laelius,  Caius,  life  and  character  of,  xi. 

friendship  of,  for  the  younger  Africanus,  xii. 
made  chief  interlocutor  in  the  De  Amicitia,  3. 
feelings  ascribed  to,  on  Scipio's  death,  8. 

Mai,  Angelo,  the  restorer  of  the  De  Bepublica,  xviL 
Masinissa,  character  of,  73  n. 
Music  of  the  spheres,  80. 

Numbers,  perfect,  in  the  Pythagorean  philosophy,  75  n. 

Orestes  and  Pylades,  in  the  tragedy  of  Pacuvius,  20. 
story  of,  21  n. 

Palimpsests,  antiquity  of,  xvi. 

successful  use  of,  xvlL 


Index.  91 

Reputation,  of  how  little  extent,  82. 
how  short-lived,  84. 

Scaevola,  Quintus  Mucins,  the  augur,  life  and  character  of,  xiv. 

a  teacher  of  young  men,  1. 
Scaevola,  Quintus  Mucins,  the  high  priest,  commended  in  the 

De  Ojfficiis  for  his  uprightness,  2  n. 
Scipio  Africauus,  the  elder,  appears  in  a  dream  to  the  younger 
Africauus,  74. 
predicts  his  career,  75. 
Scipio  Africauus,  the  younger,  death  of,  10  n. 

time  and  scene  of  the  Dream  of,  73. 
Shaftesbury,  sneers  of,  at  Christianity  for  taking  no  cognizance  of 

friendship,  viii. 
Soul,  nature  of  the,  85. 

indestnictibleness  of  the,  86. 
Stoics,  the,  over-subtile  and  exacting  in  their  definition  of  good- 
ness, 15. 

Truth,  power  of,  65. 

essential  to  and  in  friendship,  66. 

Universe,  the,  described  in  Scipio's  Dream,  79. 

Virtue,  the  soul  of  friendship,  59. 

Zones  of  the  earth,  as  appearing  in  Scipio's  Dream,  82. 


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